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• The European Union patent system is highly fragmented, which reduces its effectiveness and attractiveness, particularly through its prohibitive costs, its high degree of uncertainty and the incongruities it generates. • The Community Patent (COMPAT) would offer a coherent and attractive patent system for a market of 500 million inhabitants. • According to the simulations, the COMPAT would drastically reduce the relative patenting costs for applicants while generating more income for the European Patent Office (€43 million) and increased savings for the business sector (€250 million). • Most national patent offices would also see an increase in their revenue, with the exception of Germany, which presently benefits from the current system’s bias in favour of large countries. • The loss of economic rents (€400 million for patent attorneys, translators and lawyers specialised in patent litigation) and the reduction in the controlling power of national patent offices provide explanations for the observed resistance to the Community Patent. BR U