Article 118 [European Intellectual Property Rights]

The Treaty of Lisbon introduced for the first time an express and specific competence of the Union for the creation of European intellectual property (IP) rights. Article 118 TFEU confers a double competence upon the Union to create European uniform and unitary IP rights and to adopt language arrangements for these rights. In order to understand the reason for the adoption of Article 118 TFEU, it is necessary to consider its genesis from a historical and political perspective.