Editing Unitary patent (section)

===1970s and 1980s: proposed Community Patent Convention===
Work on a Community patent started in the 1970s, but the resulting Community Patent Convention (CPC) was a failure.

The "[[Luxembourg]] Conference on the Community Patent" took place in 1975 and the '''Convention for the European Patent for the common market''', or (Luxembourg) Community Patent Convention (CPC), was signed at Luxembourg on 15 December 1975, by the 9 member states of the [[European Economic Community]] at that time.<ref>{{CELEX|41975A3490|text=Convention for the European patent for the common market}}</ref> However, the CPC never entered into force. It was not ratified by enough countries.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wkq9BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA33|title=The Unitary EU Patent System|year=2015|first1=Justine|last1=Pila|first2=Christopher|last2=Wadlow|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]]|pages=33–35|isbn=9781782255062}}</ref>

Fourteen years later, the '''Agreement relating to Community patents''' was made at Luxembourg on 15 December 1989.<ref>{{CELEX|41989A0695(01)|text=Agreement relating to Community patents}}</ref> It attempted to revive the CPC project, but also failed. This Agreement consisted of an amended version of the original Community Patent Convention. Twelve states signed the Agreement: [[Belgium]], [[Denmark]], France, Germany, [[Greece]], [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]], Italy, [[Luxembourg]], the [[Netherlands]], [[Portugal]], Spain, and United Kingdom. All of those states would need to have ratified the Agreement to cause it to enter into force,<ref>{{CELEX|41989A0695(01)|text=89/695/EEC: Agreement relating to Community patents - Done at Luxembourg on 15 December 1989}}</ref> but only seven did so: [[Denmark]], France, Germany, [[Greece]], [[Luxembourg]], the [[Netherlands]], and United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/documents-publications/agreements-conventions/agreement/?aid=1989104|title=Agreement relating to Community Patents|access-date=2015-06-27|publisher=Council of the European Union}}</ref><ref>[[Official Journal of the European Patent Office]] 4/2006 p. 328 [http://www.european-patent-office.org/epo/pubs/oj006/04_06/04_3086.pdf (pdf)]</ref>

Nevertheless, a majority of member states of the EEC at that time introduced some harmonisation into their national patent laws in anticipation of the entry in force of the CPC. A more substantive harmonisation took place at around the same time to take account of the European Patent Convention and the [[Convention on the Unification of Certain Points of Substantive Law on Patents for Invention|Strasbourg Convention]].