Brussels, 18/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday the Council had still not reached an agreement on the Community patent, which has been the subject of discussions for 13 years. A draft compromise by the presidency was rejected by France, Germany, Spain and Portugal, as opposed to 20 votes in favour and Italy abstaining, indicated Community sources. The presidency will be producing a report on the result of this vote at the European Council in June. The Netherlands indicated that it did not intend to resume the debate at a ministerial level if there was not the possibility of an agreement. It will possibly be up to the Commission to withdraw its proposal.
The main difference focuses on the legal value of translations. Spain is requesting that the good faith of the patent user is not subject to any legal doubt when the rights of the patent holder have been breached due to translation error. The Spanish secretary of state for European affairs, Albert Navarro defended the use of patent holders by explaining to the press that he was not defending the rights of 40 million Spaniards by 400 million Spanish speakers in the world. In contrast, Germany, the main patent producer in the EU, defended the interests of the industry which favours a cheap patent. Opposed, overall, Germany and Spain considered that the Irish presidency compromise proposals did bring any more added value than the current "European patent".