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By Alexander Weir - October 2000
The protection of Intellectual Property Rights is a major concern for the EC Information Society Technologies Programme (IST) and especially for DIGICULT projects which include Libraries, Museums, Publishers, Galleries and many other organisations and institutions dealing with our Digital Heritage and Cultural Content. Intellectual Property Rights cover every aspect of cultural life, our heritage and business from the publication of a written work to the development of a computer programme to index a library database. Whatever your particular specialization, interest or activity IPR is a subject that you should be aware of. In order to assist paypersons through the minefield of protecting IP rights, the European Commission established the IPR-Helpdesk to be the central reference point for all IP related enquiries.
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After two years of operation, the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Helpdesk, an initiative of the European Commission's INNOVATION programme is now firmly established as the primary source of IPR information and assistance among European innovators. The IPR-Helpdesk provides free support on issues concerning the protection and exploitation of intellectual property and primarily assists European Researchers working on Community research projects under the Fourth and Fifth Framework Programmes and the EUREKA initiative. IPR-Helpdesk also assist potential applicants to Community funded research programmes, on all matters related to intellectual property.
The protection of the intellectual property (IP) generated by European entrepreneurs and innovators is a key issue for Europe´s enterprise society as innovation is essential for enterprise development and for the competitiveness of European business.
The IPR-Helpdesk achieves the following aims:
The IPR Helpdesk offers two main services:
In order to be able to carry out these tasks, the IPR Helpdesk has established wide-ranging contacts with the European Patent Office, national patent offices, patent lawyers, universities, and others involved in intellectual property within Europe.
The IPR-Helpdesk acts as a catalyst between those needing assistance in the field of intellectual property and those offering such assistance.
The IPR-Helpdesk is now the central IPR reference point for Community-funded research contractors. Particularly directed at intellectual property aspects within Community-funded research and technological development (RTD) activities, the IPR-Helpdesk is also open to all SME's. Help is given on research contract related issues, consortium agreements, in locating the assistance necessary to register as well as protect and exploit their research results. The RTD Community represents about 5% of European Research and Development (R&D) expenditure. One of the objectives of the IPR-Helpdesk is to provide assistance in the IPR aspects of contracts binding these entities with the European Community. The terms of these contracts define various rights relating to accessing and to ownership of R&D resulting from consortium work.
Another important aim of the IPR-Helpdesk is to encourage the use of technical and patent databases as a way of finding out the state of the art before embarking on any R & D activity. In Europe, 30% of R&D outlay is squandered on work that merely reproduces the results of existing research. By spurring companies on to make systematic use of patents as a source of information, the IPR-Helpdesk helps them to target their research on aspects that are genuinely innovative.
The IPR-Helpdesk is located in the centre of Luxembourg. The staff includes a number of multilingual legal experts from around Europe. In addition to the legal team, technical and creative staff maintain and develop the Web site. Public relations personnel have the specific tasks of bringing the Helpdesk's mission to the attention of its users and the wider academic and innovation community.
In the context of its activities the IPR-Helpdesk has developed a range of publications that can be found on the Internet site [1].
The IPR-Helpdesk Web site provides unique access to a collection of national links relating to IPR and Innovation. This enables any EU citizen to get acquainted with rules, fees and services in the field of innovation and IPR in all member states.
These EU national pages are available from the IPR Web site [2].
The IPR-Helpdesk legal team have prepared an extensive series of briefing papers aimed at researchers and managers to give an overview on important IPR issues. The documents also contain various links to further relevant sources of information.
The papers cover subjects such as:
These and other briefing papers are available from the IPR Web site [3].
Documents such as international treaties and conventions, Community legislation in force and in preparation, national legislation and other documents relating to intellectual property can also be downloaded via the IRP-Helpdesk Web site.
These legal texts are available from the IPR Web site [4].
Certainly one of the highlights of the IPR-Helpdesk Web site, IP-Wire is a free electronic newsletter. The newsletter has currently more than 5,000 subscribers and covers a wide variety of subjects and issues relevant to IPR and Innovation. From various surveys IP-Wire is an essential medium for accessing relevant and up to date information in all IP fields. Recent issues for example covered the Amazon.com patent on its affiliate programme, WIPO's latest patent filing statistics and a report on the Aventis patent infringement case. Regular features include items on how to use esp@cenet in the form of a search quiz, news of IP court cases from around the world and a selected European patent of the month. All articles are accompanied by relevant hyperlinks guiding the reader toward further sources of information.
IP-Wire & IP-News are available from the IPR Web site [5].
In order to help laypersons gain full benefit from the esp@cenet service the IPR-Helpdesk has developed a multimedia tutorial. This extensive tutorial is a unique tool that helps European innovators to better understand patent information and help them use effectively the esp@cenet during their R&D process. The tutorial also includes a general introduction to patents and patent information. This tutorial should be seriously considered by any innovator before entering a research project.
The esp@cenet tutorial is available from the IPR Web site [6].
Other facilities include an extensive range of multimedia tutorials designed to help SME's and others understand fully the IP issues that confront them under the 5th Framework Programme. These tutorials explain the various Community rules relating to IP issues in RTD projects.
These tutorials are available from the IPR Web site [7].
One of the current major debates within the innovation community in Europe is the protecting of inventions with an economic and effective patent system.
All business sectors are concerned by the protection of inventions.
In order to address this particular issue the European Commission has recently proposed the adoption of a single patent to cover the whole area of the European Union. This Community patent will addresses the needs of small and medium-sized firms, in that it will protect the inventive and innovative character of industrial products or processes. It is designed to promote innovation within SMEs.
This proposal for a Community Patent represents the outcome of a large-scale consultation process embarked upon in the context of the Action Plan for the Single Market (European Council of Amsterdam in June 1997) and the Green Paper entitled "Promoting innovation through patents" of 24 June 1997. The Commission took the initiative and organised a hearing of interested parties which took place on 25 and 26 November 1997. These came out clearly in favour of a unitary Community patent, to be created preferably by way of a Community Regulation, as had been the approach in the case of the Community trade mark in 1994. The Commission Communication of 5 February 1999 on the follow-up to the Green Paper took stock of the consultation in some detail.
It is worth noting that inventors, industry and, in particular, SMEs welcomed the planned approach with its aim of making the patent accessible, affordable and thus competitive. Innovation is of vital importance to competitiveness, growth and employment in the European Union.
Protecting inventions through patent law is a means of ensuring that inventors' ingenuity is rewarded. In patent matters, it is important for the European Community to have a legal and regulatory environment at least as favourable as that enjoyed by companies located in world regions competing with the European Union.
First it is more expensive than the patent systems in place outside the Community and is therefore not readily accessible to SMEs. Secondly it is incomplete, as the 1989 Luxembourg Convention on the Community Patent, which was to have created a unitary system of protection, has never entered into force.
The time has come to address these weaknesses. In response to the recent sharp fall in the Community's share of growth in the number of inventions patented world-wide, this proposal sets out to re-establish its previous position.
The European Council in Lisbon on 23 and 24 March 2000 reiterated the importance of rewarding innovative ideas by way of industrial property rights,
and patent protection in particular. Accordingly, the European Council invited the Council and the Commission to ensure, in cooperation with the Member States, that the Community patent is effectively implemented by the end of 2001.
The purpose of the proposal is to put in place a system of unitary patents covering the entire territory of the Community. Given the territorial nature of national patent laws, the objectives pursued cannot be achieved by Member States individually or collectively.
This proposal for a Regulation is aimed at creating a new unitary industrial property right, the Community patent. This is essential for eliminating the distortion of competition which may result from the territorial nature of national protection rights; it is also one of the most suitable means of ensuring the free movement of goods protected by patents.
The creation of a Community patent will also enable businesses to adapt their
production and distribution activities to the European dimension. This is considered to be an essential tool if we are to succeed in transforming research results and the new technological and scientific know-how into industrial and commercial success stories - and thereby put an end to the "European paradox" in innovation - while at the same time stimulating private R&D investment, which is currently at a very low level in the European Union compared with the United States and Japan. The Community patent system will coexist with the national and European patent systems. Inventors will remain free to choose the type of patent protection best suited to their needs.
The European Commission has proposed to create a Community Patent to give inventors the option of obtaining a single patent legally valid throughout the European Union. The proposal would significantly lessen the burden on business and encourage innovation by making it cheaper to obtain a patent and by providing a clear legal framework in case of dispute. The Lisbon and Feira European Councils cited the creation of a Community Patent as an essential part of Europe's efforts to harness the results of research to new scientific and technological developments and so contribute to ensuring a competitive, knowledge-based economy in Europe. The Summits recommended that the Community Patent should be available by the end of 2001.
Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein said: "The creation of a Community Patent is an essential part of Europe's efforts to reduce the cost burdens on business and help ensure that research and technological and scientific innovation can be successfully applied by industry and commerce. Often in the past Europe has provided the research, but it is others who have used it to commercial advantage. We need to turn that around. Europe's reputation for research should be matched by a reputation for innovative, competitive product development. A single patent will slash the costs of patent coverage while guaranteeing a high level of protection. Such a Community Patent will provide an important competitive tool to European industry and notably SMEs in the age of the new economy."
At present patents are awarded either on a national basis or through the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich, which grants so-called European Patents. These are essentially a bundle of national patents. The EPO, established by the intergovernmental European Patent Convention of 1973, offers a single application and granting procedure and so saves the applicant the trouble of having to file with a series of national patent offices. But each Member State may still require that, in order to be legally valid in their territory, the European Patent must be translated into their official languages. Moreover, in the case of disputes, it is national courts that are competent so that, in principle, there can be 15 different legal proceedings, with different procedural rules in every Member State and with the risk of different outcomes. The costs of translation mean that it is currently significantly more expensive to patent an invention in Europe than it is in the US or Japan. When added to the potential inconvenience of working with a variety of different legal systems in case of dispute, the current system is a significant barrier to research, development and innovation.
Under the Commission's new proposal, Community Patents would be issued by the European Patent Office. National and European Patents would coexist with the Community Patent system, so that inventors would be free to choose which type of patent protection best suited their needs.
A principal aim of the proposal is to reduce the cost of patenting an invention in Europe. The table below shows clearly the variation in the costs of patenting in Europe compared to the US and Japan:
| Filing and search fees | Examination fees | Grant fees | Renewal fees | Translation costs | Agent's fees | Total | |
| EPC | 810 + 532 | 1 431 | 715 | 16 790 | 12 600 | 17 000 | 49 900 |
| US | 690 | - | 1 210 | 2 730 | n/a | 5 700 | 10 330 |
| Japan | 210 | 1 100 | 850 | 5 840 | n/a | 8 450 | 16 450 |
Table 1: Comparison of costs and fees (in euros) payable for obtaining patents in the EU, the United States and in Japan.
The cost of the current European Patent is as you can see three to five times higher than that of Japanese and US patents.
A patent application consists of a detailed description of the invention and a set of claims, which defines the scope of the protection provided by the patent. At present, a typical European Patent (to apply in eight Member States) costs approximately 49,900 EUROS, of which 12,600 EUROS (some 25 per cent) is accounted for by translation costs. In the case of a European Patent to apply in all 15 Member States and requiring translation into all eleven EU official languages, the translation costs go up to some 17,000 euros.
The proposal to create a Community Patent would reduce translation costs to approximately 2,200 Euros by not requiring any translation beyond that already foreseen in the Munich Convention for the granting of the patent (this implies that the patent would be granted and published in one of the working languages of the EPO - English, French or German - and the claims (i.e. the part of the patent which defines the scope of protection) would be translated into the other two).
In practice the universal language for patents is English and translations are very rarely consulted. For example at the 'Institut National de la Proprieté Industrielle', the French national institute of industrial property rights, translations are consulted in only 2 per cent of cases.
Further information regarding the Community Patent is available from the IPR Web site [8].
If you would like any further information on any aspect of IPR’s protection or on any of the subjects mentioned in this article or you would just like to be kept up to date about the future activities of the IPR-Helpdesk, including IPR seminars, events and conferences, site updates, newsletter, etc, then please feel, free to contact us [9].
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Alexander Weir
IPR-Helpdesk
64-66, avenue Victor Hugo,
L-1750 Luxembourg
alexander.weir@ipr-helpdesk.org
<http://www.cordis.lu/ipr-helpdesk/>
Phone: +352 47 11 11 1
Fax: +352 47 11 11 60
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For citation purposes:
Weir, A. "IPR-Helpdesk The Intellectual Property Rights Gateway For Digital Cultural Heritage", Cultivate Interactive, issue
2, 16 October 2000
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue2/ipr/>
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