Brussels, 16/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has started a public consultation exercise on how future action in patent policy to create an EU-wide system of protection can best take account of stakeholders' needs. While the Community Patent (currently in deadlock at the Council) remains a priority, the Commission is also seeking views on what measures could be taken in the near future to improve the patent system in Europe. The main topics to be considered in the consultation are the Community Patent, how to improve the current patent system in the EU and areas where harmonisation would be possible. The Commission will be holding a special hearing on patents on 13 June. The questionnaire can be downloaded from the European Commission Internal Market Directorate General's website (http: //europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/indprop/patent/consultation_en.htm). All interested parties, including industry and individuals, are encouraged to reply. The closing date is 31 March 2006.
The first part of the questionnaire looks at the fundamentals of the EU's patent system, namely setting clear rules on the scope of a patent's application, establishing transparent procedures and keeping costs down for registering patents, rapid and low-cost settlement of disputes between patent holders and other parties, taking other issues into account like competition rules, ethics, the environment, health and access to information. The European Commission wants to find out whether the parties responding to the consultation share its view of the matter or whether they feel other factors should be taken into account.
The second series of questions looks at the Community Patent and its role as a priority for the EU (industrial property, which includes patents, has been identified as one of the seven major cross-sectoral policy initiatives in the Commission's new industrial policy put forward on 5 October 2005). The European Commission explains that lack of agreement between the Member States on the legal impact of translations of the future Community Patent is still preventing agreement on the draft regulation. The Commission believes that good intellectual property rules are essential: by stimulating innovation and leading to the successful development of new products, they help to generate growth and jobs. The Commission believes the Community Patent will help companies cut costs and give them the legal security they require to get them to invest in innovation. The Commission explains that the cost of acquiring a Community Patent covering all EU Member States is the same as the current cost of acquiring intellectual property rights covering five Member States of the European Patent Convention.
The European Commission's consultation will also look at responsibility for setting patent disputes. The Commission points out that work is currently underway at the European Patent Office (EPO) to establish a central European court for patent disputes and implementing the London Protocol (agreement simplifying the language requirements for patents, see EUROPE 9078). The Commission asks about the advantages and disadvantages of the type of dispute settlement system for European patents suggested by the EPO, and the best way to settle disputes given that there are three different patent systems in Europe (namely national patents, the Community Patent and European patents).
Some parties, MEPs for example, have suggested a series of approaches to get out of the current deadlock over the Community Patent, namely 1) incorporating important patentability issues from the European Patent Convention in EU law in order to allow national courts to ask the EU Court of Justice to interpret EU law; 2) restricting harmonisation to areas not specifically covered by the European Patent Convention; and 3) encouraging mutual recognition of patents issued in other Member States by national patent offices in the EU. The Commission is asking those responding to its consultation to provide feedback on the value-added and feasibility of each of these three options.
The Commission also wants to find out how important patents are for small and medium-sized enterprises, compared with other means of legal protection for intellectual property rights, like copyright and registering trademarks and designs. In the questionnaire, it asks companies to provide information about problems they have encountered under the present patent system.
At the end of November last year, EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McGreevy addressed the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee on the Community Patent. He said the delays in introducing the legislation were due to Member States' refusal to budget and were a consequence of the lack of political will to put the economic interests of EU industry as a whole above short-term national interests. He told the MEPs that during his term in office, would be making a determined effort to ensure the Community Patent was adopted, saying that he did not want to find himself in tour years time (when he hands the issue on to the next Internal Market Commissioner) having to say that he was still waiting.