Oh dear more innovation doublespeak
"The European patent system is costly and fragmented, discouraging innovation compared to the US and Japan. The difference in patenting costs in comparison to these countries is significant and is not being reduced. It is high time to change this situation,"
It is costly and fragmented because the patents are written in languages and the languages are costly and fragmented. The germans wanted patents in German, the British in English and the French in French.... oh and the Japanese want patents in Japanese, and not only that, when they apply for patents in Europe, somehow they manage to do it in English, German and every other language.
And some how, us European innovators patent in Japan in Japanese, yet somehow doing it in German is 'fragmented'??? I don't think so.
Nobody wanted to EPO in central control, because the EPO went patent crazy and tried to let patents for business methods, software, cat-food flavours, you name it, they wanted to grant monopolies on it.
Trade secrets work well and amazingly cross the language barrier perfectly. Silence is universal, the Chinese version of silence is the same as the German one! So at least in some areas, there is no fragmentation at all. Exactly the areas the Eurocrats kept their noses out of!