Brussels, 18/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Italian Presidency hopes to reach an agreement in November on the creation of a Community patent, which has been on the table for twenty-eight years. On Monday, it will present a report on the state of progress of work to the Competitiveness Council. Current negotiations are essentially on the time required for translating patents, the language of reference and the conditions for granting compulsory licences when a patent is not used by the right holder or in the case of Acts of God.
In November 2002, the Council had defined the linguistic regime for the future Community patent. Claims making up the main part of the patent will be deposited in one of the three official languages of the European Patents Office in Munich (French, German and English) and will then be translated into two other Community languages. Once the patent is issued, claims should be translated into all the Community languages. The agreement stipulated that translation should be done within a reasonable period of time. The Fifteen are currently seeking to interpret what this means. France and Germany consider that the time should be two years, while the Commission is pushing for 9 months. Spain and Portugal would like 3 months. Spain, moreover, is putting pressure on for the reference language in disputes to be that of the State where the dispute is taking place.
The European Parliament should in any event be consulted a second time, the text having been substantially amended since a first opinion was given in April 2002. The Commission should also present a proposal end September to translate into legal terms the Council agreement of March 2003 on relevant jurisdiction. The agreement provides for disputes linked to patents to be handled by a specialised chamber within the Court of Justice from 2010 on.