The European Parliament voted this afternoon to accept a hard-fought compromise law. The new Unitary Patent is a huge break-through for European innovation and competitiveness which will greatly reduce the red tape and costs for businesses across Europe.

Until today, businesses applying for a patent had to apply in each separate state of the EU and have their application translated into 23 different languages to protect their rights - a system that involved an average expense of forty thousand Euros. The new single patent will only have to be applied for once, will be valid in 25 of the EU member states, and be processed in English, French or German, which will dramatically reduce the cost to around only 4000 Euros per patent.

The new legislation will also improve the competitive position of UK businesses relative to the US and Japan, where patents are already substantially cheaper.

Bill voted for the new system and welcomes it strongly:

"This new patenting system is an excellent achievement which will make it easier and cheaper for businesses in the East Midlands to develop new products and promote innovation. Money that is currently being wasted on translating patent applications in twenty seven different states can now be used for more research and most importantly to create jobs.'

"Shockingly, both UKIP MEPs in our region voted against this improvement which will save businesses millions. They have once again demonstrated their obsessive and illogical hatred towards European cooperation and voted against something which will benefit our small and medium sized businesses, and our great universities."

At present, patents have to be registered in each European country separately. In future, an applicant will now be able to register a unitary patent in any EU language and the request will be processed by the European Patent Office into English, French or German. Automatic translation services will be accessible free of charge in all EU languages in order to keep costs down for SMEs, universities, research organisations and ordinary citizens. The European Patent Court will be split in three locations with Paris as the administrative centre, Munich as the centre for mechanical engineering and London as the hub for chemicals, pharmaceuticals and life sciences.

Spain and Italy have opted out because they object to their languages not being used for the new single European patent.