About: patents Archives

The Belgian Presidency has proposed a new compromise text – seen by EURACTIV - to break a long-standing deadlock over EU patents which could lead to an historic deal at an extraordinary Competitiveness Council next Wednesday (10 November).

The Belgian EU Presidency will put a non-paper on the table at today's informal Competitiveness Council aimed at breaking the deadlock over proposals for a single EU-wide patent system, which has been blocked for over a decade over language issues.

The overwhelming majority of innovation experts want EU structural funds to be used to get innovative products and services to the market, according to a new survey. As the European Commission readies its new innovation plan, a consensus is also forming around the need to slash bureaucratic procedures and boost venture capital funding.

Calls for patent-free green technologies on the one hand and for trade barriers on the other highlight the deep rift between developing and industrial countries, write Thomas Dapp and Eric Heymann of Deutsche Bank Research.

The number of European patent applications filed last year fell for the first time in 20 years, according to new figures released by the European Patent Office (EPO).

The days of the $1 billion blockbuster drug are over, according to a senior industry researcher. Big pharma is now investing in finding multiple uses for medicines developed to treat rare diseases, but is pushing the EU for regulatory changes to make research worthwhile.

EU industry ministers yesterday (1 December) approved the Small Business Act (SBA), accompanied by an action plan to alleviate the immediate effects of the current economic crisis.

Despite the absence of concrete legislative initiatives on issues such as the Community patent, businesses have praised the Commission's new strategy to better protect patents and trademarks – an area particularly crucial for smaller companies.

Talks on setting up a European patent system made good progress at the meeting of EU industry ministers yesterday (29 May), but sensitive translation arrangements remain the main obstacle, the Slovenian EU Presidency said after the meeting.

The EU must continue its drive to improve conditions for enterprises and promote sustainable production, ministers in charge of competitiveness said after their Council meeting in Brussels on 22 November.

After tough negotiations with the Commission and member states, the European Parliament has finally endorsed an international agreement on improving access to medicines for developing countries. To come into force, the protocol must be ratified by at least two thirds of WTO members.

To unlock Europe's innovation potential, the EU should adhere to the European Patent Convention rather than pursue the creation of a community patent on which unanimous consent is impossible, argues ProTon Europe, an organisation specialised in knowledge transfer, in an interview with EURACTIV.

Europe needs to get professional people to work on knowledge transfer at universities, ease the patent system and get member states and university senior managers to understand that supporting knowledge transfer is part of their role, argues Gillian McFadzean of ProTon Europe.

According to a new report, Germans file the most patents in Europe and the country is also the EU leader in the output of patent applications relative to research and development spending.

Pharma companies will have a tougher time extending the patents for some of their products following a judgment by the European Court of Justice.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) the growth rate for patent applications from Japan, Republic of Korea and China remains exceptional.

After the rejection, on 6 July 2005, by the Parliament of the draft directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions, often referred to as the 'software patents directive', industry and associations are discussing the consequences for Europe's patent regime and intellectual property rights (IPR) protection for computer programmes. 

A Commission report concludes that there are no objective grounds for restrictions on traditional patent protection for inventions relating to sequences of human genes. However, other issues relating to ethics, to research and to economics have been raised. 

After the rejection by the Parliament of the proposed directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions, often dubbed as the "software patents directive", industry and associations are discussing consequences for Europe's patent regime and intellectual property rights (IPR) protection for computer programs. 

The EU's draft regulation on paediatrics has come under attack from the generics industry. It claims patent extensions for children's medicines should only be granted to low-selling products which are unlikely to generate quick profits.

EU ministers have rejected most of the Parliament's amendments to
the software patents directive. The new Parliament will examine the
text in second reading after the June elections.