European patent law ‘needs better alignment with open science’

Academy groups suggests “grace period” in patent applications for making research results openly available

Europe should tweak its patent laws to make them more compatible with the growing drive for research results to be made openly available, a group of learned academies has said.

The European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (Allea) published a statement on 13 April arguing that existing laws around patenting are outdated and hamper progress towards open access to research results.