Brussels, 15/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - The president of the Competitiveness Council, Bendt Bendtsen, noted with regret on Thursday evening that the Council had not even managed to reach consensus on "guidelines" for the future debates on the matter of the relevant jurisdiction for handling disputes relating to the future Community Patent. The Council will come back to this subject at its meeting on 26 November.
Germany insisted that the selection criteria of the future decentralised Chambers should be particularly strict, while conserving the role of its tribunals currently competent to deal with patents cases (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.6). Italy, Greece and Portugal hoped that, from the time when the principle of regional chambers is adopted, there might be a regional chamber in every country that wants one.
Frits Bolkestein said he was "bitterly disappointed that, one year after the deadline set by the Lisbon Summit, the Council had not managed to make substantial progress on this vital issue". Such a failure "undermines the credibility of the undertaking intended to make Europe the most competitive economy in the world by 2010", he remarked, commenting ironically on the new name the Competitiveness Council had given itself. He pointed out that the Commission would not rally to a patent formula that is just an over-expensive empty humbug that industry would not use. "Unless an agreement is reached before the European Council in spring 2003, I would closely envisage the possibility of withdrawing the Commission's proposal", he threatened. The Presidency, on the other hand, welcomed the fact that an agreement had been practically reached on the patentability of inventions implemented by computer (only reservations by the Commission, France and Spain blocked adoption of the general guidelines).