Brussels, 13/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to send "reasoned opinions" to France, Italy and Luxembourg, which it reproaches with having practised discrimination in their laws on patent agents. According to the Commission, the conditions imposed in these three countries for the exercise of this profession run counter to Community legislation concerning the free provision of services and mutual recognition of diplomas. If a satisfactory response is not given within two months, the Commission may take these matters before the Court of Justice.
A note from the spokesman's service describes the gaps in the legislation of the three countries concerned:
- France. Under French rules governing the deposition of patents and the profession of patent agent, only agents who have passed the required aptitude test and figure on the list of French agents may represent clients before the National Institute responsible for Industrial Property rights. Moreover, all agents must be professionally established in France. These conditions run counter to the principle of freedom to provide services that is one of the principal freedoms of the Internal Market (Article 49 of the EC Treaty) and legislation providing for the mutual recognition of diplomas.
- Luxembourg. Luxembourg law insists that only registered patent agents may apply for patents and that to appear on the register, the agent must be domiciled, both privately and for business purposes or use an address of a fellow patent agent who has an actual domicile in Luxembourg. This condition violates the principle of freedom to provide services, in the Commission's view.
- Italy. Italian law requires patent agents to be registered on an official list maintained by the Italian patent office. To appear on the list the agent must be domiciled for professional purposes in Italy and have passed an examination. Again, the Commission considers that these conditions violate the principle of freedom to provide services.
