Defending intellectual property in the EU may get cheaper, quicker and more efficient under plans to streamline the patent regime outlined by the European Commission yesterday.

Businesses and inventors are forced to defend their patent in each EU member state individually, an exercise that is too costly for all but the biggest companies.

Litigating one patent in just four member states - Germany, France, Britain and the Netherlands - costs €310,000-€1.95 million at first instance and €320,000-€1.39 million at second instance, the commission said.

Charlie McCreevy, the EU internal market commissioner, said: "The EU simply must deliver, in particular on the community patent and sound litigation agreements, because in today's increasingly competitive global economy, Europe cannot afford to lose ground in an area as crucial as patent policy."

For years Brussels has advocated reform of the union's heavily fragmented and cumbersome patent system, but has run into opposition from national capitals. Business leaders see patent reform as one of the most urgent steps towards improving the region's competitiveness, but some fear an overhaul will hurt their country's research base and undermine long-established rules and traditions.

A landmark plan to set up a "community patent" that would grant inventors protection across all EU member states had to be abandoned four years ago because governments were unable to agree on a language regime for the new patent.

In December last year the commission suffered a fresh setback when countries, led by France, prevented the publication of an earlier - and more radical - version of the patent strategy outlined yesterday.

The commission pointed to two possible solutions to the problems surrounding patent litigation. The EU could sign up to the draft European Patent Litigation Agreement, which seeks to create a unified system for handling patent disputes including a new string of special patent courts, but which was rejected last year.

The second option is to allow existing EU courts - the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the Court of First Instance - to handle patent disputes.

The commission yesterday proposed mixing the two approaches by creating a judicial system "strongly inspired by the EPLA model" but that would still be integrated into the existing chain of EU courts. The ECJ would remain the final arbiter in matters of EU law, the commission stressed.