(Adds Barnier comment)
PARIS, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Ten EU governments, including France and Germany, got European Commission backing on Wednesday for plans to push ahead with a common patent system despite objections by other countries in the 27-country European Union.
Hopes of creating a region-wide patenting system to slash costs and allow Europe to compete with China and the United States have been stymied for years at EU level due to disputes over which languages to use.
In a letter sent to EU Internal Markets Commissioner Michel Barnier on Tuesday, 10 countries said it was clear a unanimous agreement would not be reached any time soon, and urged the European Commission to allow them to go ahead as a smaller group with a common patent.
Speaking in Brussels, Barnier said the Commission would now start proceedings to allow the states to move ahead on a deal without first reaching unanimity.
"I have been authorised by the (commissioners') college to tell the Competitiveness Council on Friday that we are ready to start the procedure," Barnier told journalists at a news conference.
Once the Commission has received the green light from EU-member states and the European parliament, it will move quickly to propose a new text for an EU-wide patent, he said.
The letter was signed by France, Germany, Slovenia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden.
However, French Industry Minister Eric Besson said last week he thought 23 or 24 countries within the EU-bloc were ready to move ahead on a proposal.
The EU has tried since the 1960s to simplify its complex and costly system of patenting across a membership that now spans 27 countries, but it has stumbled on how to pare the number of languages used and streamline legal challenges.
A European patent already exists but it is in effect a bundle of national patents as it has to be validated in each country, a costly process in terms of legal and translation fees that can ultimately push the cost of a patent far higher than in the United States.
This makes a European patent cost as much as 20,000 euros, 10 times more than its U.S. equivalent, which costs about 1,850 euros.
In July, Barnier proposed a deal for a region-wide patent, limiting the number of languages to three: English, German and French.
But the solution was rejected by Spain and Italy who said their languages should also be included to guarantee diversity. (Reporting by Vicky Buffery and Julien Toyer)