Recommendations on intellectual property rights

• European Patent

The creation and support of a uniform and harmonised IPR landscape across Europe will be a very important task in the near future. To realise this aim their should be some action which allows it to implement the European patent step by step. Currently, patents are only valid for designated states. It should be possible for technology development companies to receive a Europe-wide patent on a development without going to different national organisations. According to this, the jurisprudence concerning IPR matters should be harmonised across Europe.

Already in July 2000 the European Commission proposed the creation of a Community Patent to tackle the deficiencies of the European Patent Convention system, which generates large translation - as well as enforcement - costs for businesses, as disputes must be handled via individual national courts. In March 2003 the member states reached an agreement on a 'common political approach' concerning the establishment of a Community Patent Court which would rule on disputes, language regimes, costs and the role of national patent offices. In December 2003 the European Commission presented a proposal to confer formal jurisdiction over Community Patents disputes to the Court of Justice (CoJ) and to establish a Community Patent Court to exercise the CoJ's jurisdiction on its behalf. Unfortunately the proposal never received the approval. The results from this first trial could be a good starting point for some new action regarding the implementation of a European Patent.

• Royalty free standards

A further point that should be concerned is the influence of IPR on standardisation. The influence of IPR into existing and future standards should be minimised. It should be ensured that the most relevant standards are free from any royalty. Only in this way the market is able to develop freely and without any hindrances. Currently, many standardised technologies and procedures are the intellectual property right of somebody. Everybody who wants to release a product which is conform to a standard has to pay for it.

• Develop guidelines on licensing conditions for standards related IPR

FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non Discriminatory) and RAND (Reasonable and Non Discriminating) conditions should be clearly specified by different organisations. It has to be layed down which arguments are reasonable and non-discriminating. IPR holders must be compelled to give an offer for a contract to an interested party within short time. Further on, everything must be unfolded and limits must be specified.

• Patent pools

Another recommendation is that the European industry should be encouraged to co-operate with existing patent pools. Within the UHF area, there is a risk that European companies will be prevented from market entry by U.S. competitors due to the patent situation.