[FYI] Results of the Competitiveness Council of Ministers, Brussels, 3rd March 2003

["Axel H Horns" <axel.h.horns@gmx.net>]

<http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&;
doc=MEMO/03/47|0|RAPID&lg=EN&display=>  

----------------------------- CUT ------------------------------

Results of the Competitiveness Council of Ministers, Brussels, 3rd 
March 2003   

                              DN: MEMO/03/47     Date: 04/03/2003


                                  TXT: EN
                                  PDF: EN
                                  DOC: EN

                             MEMO/03/47 

                             Brussels, 4th March 

Results of the Competitiveness Council of Ministers, Brussels, 3rd
March 2003  

Community Patent (JT)  

The Council reached agreement on a "common political approach" 
concerning the proposed Community Patent (see MEMO/02/255, 
MEMO/01/451, IP/00/714 and MEMO/00/41). This "common political 
approach" includes the main outlines of the system of jurisdiction
whereby a centralised Community Court would rule on disputes, the
language regimes, costs, the role of national patent offices and the
distribution of fees.  

"Today's agreement marks a welcome demonstration that Europe means
business, and lends credibility to Europe's efforts to become the most
competitive economy in the world by 2010", commented Internal Market
Commissioner Frits Bolkestein after the Council. "The Community Patent
will give inventors the option of obtaining, with just one
application, a single patent legally valid throughout the European
Union at a fraction of the existing cost of doing so. At the moment,
patent protection in just eight European countries costs some €50,000
around five times as much as in the US or Japan. The Community Patent,
on the basis of the current compromise, would halve these costs to
some €25,000 for 25 Member States rather than just eight still more
than the US or Japan but very much better than the current situation."
 

"I am pleased that the Council has today agreed, in accordance with
the Commission's original proposal, that there should be a single,
centralised Community Court to rule on disputes arising from Community
Patents. This ensures that companies using the Community Patent would
not have to run the risk of potential legal action before national
courts in each and every Member State, with the legal uncertainty,
inconvenience and cost that would have entailed."  

The Council is now due to agree and adopt the text of the proposed
Regulation on the Community Patent. In the meantime, the Commission is
due to present proposals for Council Decisions to confer jurisdiction
on the European Court of Justice to rule on issues arising from
Community Patents and to establish a specialised Court to do so. For
its part, the Council is due to propose to the European Patent
Organisation (created by the 1973 Munich Convention) to convene a
diplomatic conference to revise the Munich Convention so as to allow
the European Patent Office in Munich to issue Community Patents. This
revision of the Munich Convention would then have to be ratified by
the EPO member countries.  

[...]

----------------------------- CUT ------------------------------



-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: debate-unsubscribe@lists.fitug.de
For additional commands, e-mail: debate-help@lists.fitug.de