Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

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# 92000E0961

**WRITTEN QUESTION E-0961/00 by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission. A favourable climate for EU inventors.** 
  
*Official Journal 374 E , 28/12/2000 P. 0193 - 0193*

  

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0961/00

by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(29 March 2000)

Subject: A favourable climate for EU inventors

One of the most productive features of our economy is that of invention. However, inventors are not only faced with multiple challenges relating to their own inventions: they have to confront a veritable forest of red tape.

At a moment when the Community is endeavouring to take a major step forward to catch up on lost ground in the technological field at planetary level, it is essential that inventors should be offered a new climate enabling them to develop their inventions in comfort and patent them in secure and reliable conditions, without being overwhelmed by bureaucracy.

Can the Commission state whether it believes it should promote an in-depth study to ascertain the real situation of inventors in the Community, the nature of their concerns, their difficulties in relation to the two poles of Munich and The Hague, and, in general, all the factors that can make the difference between success or failure, across the range of activities in which inventors can contribute to the Community's economic activity as a whole?

Answer by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(3 May 2000)

The Commission agrees with the honourable Member regarding the need to ensure that inventors in the Community benefit from a climate conducive to the development of their activities.

Innovation has, indeed, become a major vector of lasting growth for businesses and of economic prosperity for society as a whole.

With a view to defining the suitable framework for the development of inventions and innovative actions in Europe, the Commission has consulted a number of interested circles, especially through its Green Papers on Innovation in Europe(1) and on the Community patent and the patent system in Europe(2). Following these consultations, it submitted ambitious action plans containing concrete measures in order to meet the needs of industry and independent inventors.

Among the more important initiatives, the Commission announced that it would make legislative proposals for creating a Commuity patent, producing the same effects throughout the Community, which would be simple to administer, easily accessible and reasonably priced. The Community patent was also described by the Commission, in its January 2000 communication entitled Towards a European Research Area(3), as a powerful lever for the development of research in Europe.

Furthermore, innovation should also be boosted thanks to other measures, such as the development of the role of national patent offices towards encouraging innovation, improving access to patent information or introducing the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Help Desk, which is a service designed to help those involved in innovation and to familiarise them with intellectual property.

(1) COM(97) 736 final.

(2) COM(97) 314 final.

(3) COM(2000) 6 final.

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