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Mon 06 Jun 2007EU to finally settle patent issueBRUSSELS:More than three decades of wrangling over how to introduce an EU-wide patent could be settled within one to three years, the head of Europe's patent watchdog said last week.A one-stop shop patent system would help narrow the innovation lead of Japan and the US, where it can be 10 times cheaper to protect such rights, the European Commission has said.