Athens, 28/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - The fourth annual epoline ® conference of the European Patent Office (EPO), held in Athens on November 23 and 24, in particular permitted the presentation of the stakes involved in the system of filing patents online - Epoline - and to invoke the primordial role of the European patent system to favour innovation and competition in the framework of the Lisbon strategy.
The EPO issues patents for the 31 member states of the Convention on European patents, signed in Munich on October 5, 1973. In 2005, this independent body received more than 190,000 requests for filing European patents and issued approximately 55,000. In order that those filing patents might make their requests via the Internet, the electronic communication system Epoline was created in 1999. This permits private individuals, businesses or national offices to file patents directly online, free of charge. During the conference, John Bambridge, in charge of Epoline at the EPO, noted that the idea of filing online has been favourably received. “From a few hundred requests in 2001, we have surpassed 30,000 in 2005”. The system also allows one to consult existing patents, to gather all other information on the patentability of the invention and even to file appeals online in the case of opposition. “Our objective, explains John Bambridge, is to adapt this system to all member states of the EPO” and thus create a sort of European standard. More concretely, this “European standard” would consist of an “electronic packet” that national patent offices could install in order to have the same filing services online. “Several member states already seem interested; Poland, Denmark and the Netherlands have already given their approval”, specified M. Bambridge.
In Athens, the president of the EPO Alain Pompidou (former European parliamentarian) maintained, before a gathering of specialists in the area of intellectual property in Europe, that “patents are today a high priority of the press”, with the recent European Parliament vote on the project directive put into place by computer and the debate on the patentability of technological inventions. “These areas are driven today even in the heart of the marketplace, of the public domain, and are no longer reserved only for specialists”, he maintains, before specifying that even the debate on the avian flu could concern patents “if the viruses to be fabricated give rise to the need for a license”. In this context, “the patent plays a key role in the exploitation of the only natural resource available in inexhaustible quantity throughout the world: knowledge based on know-how and innovation”. The president of the EPO noted that it was incumbent upon his office to examine the requests for filing before issuing, but also to inform users. Whence, he explains, the “necessity for an electronic instrument assuring total transparency”, such as Epoline, “that as well as being freely accessible and free of charge, also contributes to institute a European standard”. To conclude, the president of the EPO invoked the three key elements of politics that he intends to put into place: 1) the creation of a real, uniform patent culture in Europe to favour innovation; 2) reduction of the costs of European patents, notably the costs involving translation; the creation of a central European Tribunal to treat disputes (EUROPE will return in the commentaries of M. Pompidou on the dossier concerning European patents).
The Greek minister of Development, Dimitris Sioufas, insisted in his opening speech: “the challenge is essential for Europe; we must (…) act quickly”. To reinforce its economic growth, “Europe has only one path: the reinforcement of its competitiveness”, it therefore must invest in new knowledge and in the promotion of innovations and inventions, he says. Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister, noted that for him “Europe has always been at the forefront of innovation (…), particularly here in Athens”, but that, “in the deep wave of today's globalisation” it has lagged behind, “while America has taken off in investment in research, technology and in thinking in the long term”. What should Europe do in this context?: to pursue and deepen the politics already in place, such as the Lisbon strategy (which has “very nice ambitions but neither sufficient instruments nor political will” deplores M. Bildt), the objectives of the European Council of Barcelona for research and development, the seventh Programme-framework of research and development, etc. One must also follow the example of European successes such as those of the Nordic countries, notably Sweden and Finland, which, after having made up for their delay caused by a deep economic recession at the end of the 1980's, are realizing a “takeoff effect” and have long been engaged in research and innovation.