PATINNOVA / EPIDOS Conference in Halkidiki
homepage=> official communication=> press releases 1999 => 20.10.1999
Halkidiki, 20 October 1999.-- Europe should increase its efforts to introduce a unitary patent system and improve its litigation system for patents: These were the central findings of the European Commission's PATINNOVA conference that came to a close on Wednesday. In their final statements summarising the results of the conference, the speakers also agreed that the patent system needs a higher profile in corporate and academic training in order to ensure Europe's competitive edge in the long run: "If Europe wants to be successful in the technology race with the US and Japan, it has to revise its patent system. Patents are playing a key role in that race", said Esko Friman of Nokia, one of the leading representatives of industry at the conference. A similar plea was voiced at the beginning of PATINNOVA, when Hellas' Minister for development and tourism, Evangelis Venizelos, encouraged the participants to formulate "revolutionary suggestions" in order to meet the new challenges in the field of patents.
The representatives of the European Commission gave a short outline of an improved litigation system, which could consist of competent first instance courts at national level, and, as second instance, a central European Court of Patents. This proposal is already being examined by a working group set up at the Intergovernmental Conference of the member states of the European Patent Organisation which had been convoked by the French government in June with a view to introducing reforms to the European patent system. While the results of that group are expected to be presented in the course of the next year, the introduction of the Community patent will remain a mid-term objective: According to Eric Noteboom, Head of Unit in the Directorate General "Internal Market" at the EU Commission, implementation is likely to occur within the next "five to ten years".
From industry's point of view, the current patent system, consisting of national patents and centrally granted, but nationally validated European patents was seen to be too slow and too costly for the needs of the European industry acting in a rapidly changing competitive environment. According to Mr Friman's view, a unitary patent , which would also be centrally granted and administered by the European Patent Office, would make national patent offices not redundant, but assign them to new and even more important roles.
However, an integrated patent system was seen to offer solutions to other problems in the field of patents. Liliane Meyers, Principal Director Patent Information of the European Patent Office, pointed out that a unitary patent system could help reducing the cost of patenting, notably through the avoidance of parallel work carried out by the different patent authorities in the granting process, and also facilitate the setting up of a litigation insurance system. She equally addressed the need of reducing the translation costs inherent in the current European patent system.
Raising the awareness for the need of patent protection was then third topic addressed by the PATINNOVA conference. All speakers unanimously asked for a stronger political backing for the information and awareness campaigns launched by the European Commission, the European Patent Office and the national patent offices. Besides individual measures taken in specific countries, such as France, Sweden or Germany, the IPR Helpdesk of the Commission and the esp@cenet® patent server of the European Patent Organisation were also found to be efficient instruments for information on patents.
In view of the need to widen the scope of activities in the patent field in Europe, Mr Javier Hernandez-Ros, Head of Unit in the Directorate-General "Enterprise", announced that the EU Commission would set up a working group early next year to evaluate the findings of three studies examining patent awareness campaigns, the litigation system and possibilities of litigation insurance.
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