PARIS, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Ten European Union governments, frustrated by deadlocks over the creation of an EU-wide patent due to a language dispute, plan to push ahead without recalcitrant countries, a letter released on Wednesday said.
Hopes of slashing huge patenting costs have been stymied for years at EU level and a recent attempt to end the impasse failed when Spain and Italy insisted their languages be included along with German, English and French as official patent languages.
In the letter to EU Internal Markets Commissioner Michel Barnier, 10 countries, including France and Germany, said it was clear the 27-nation bloc would be unable to reach a unanimous agreement within a reasonable timeframe.
They urged the European Commission, the EU's executive body, to allow them to go ahead as a smaller group with establishment of a common patent, according to the text of the letter, which was released to the media by the French finance ministry.
The letter was also signed by Slovenia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden.
In Brussels, a spokeswoman for Barnier confirmed receiving the letter and said it would be discussed by EU countries and the Commission at a meeting on Friday.
The EU has tried since the 1960s to simplify its complex and costly system of patenting across a membership that now spans 27 countries, but it has stumbled on how to pare the number of languages used and streamline legal challenges.
A European patent already exists but it is in effect a bundle of national patents as it has to be validated in each country, a costly process in terms of legal and translation fees that can ultimately push the cost of a patent far higher than in the United States.
This makes a European patent cost as much as 20,000 euros, 10 times more than its U.S. equivalent, which costs about 1,850 euros.
In July, Barnier proposed a deal limiting the number of languages to three: English, German and French, but the solution has failed to win the unanimous backing of EU member states. (Reporting by Vicky Buffery; editing by Brian Love and Matthew Jones)