Why is the directive needed?
In the EU there was 30 year old patent law that did not fit into the new developments in biotechnology and hampered both innovation and openness in research in Europe. A new directive would finetune the demands from research, industry and society with the scientific and societal developments and remove the existing legal incertainties:
Research investments need to be payed back through new products, so that new investments for future products can be made. With a workable directive, there is an equilibrium between protection of research results linked to an industrial application and openness to society about the research results.
Only with a workable directive, European research investments can bring new jobs and products to European companies. If European countries depend too much on health and agricultural products from other continents, they loose influence on the direction of innovations, and they fund indirectly the research in other continents.
The first step, a European patent directive, was reached in July 1998. The second step is the implementation of this directive into the national laws of the member states.
It is important that there is a European wide directive, so that the competitiveness of European scientists and companies is not hampered too much if compared to scientists and companies in America or Asia.
So it is necessary to harmonise patent protection in all Member States to ensure that the general principles of patent law are applied to biotechnological inventions in the same way throughout the EU.
The implementation of the directive will guarantee harmonised and reliable patent protection right across the EU. It will also provide a standard of patent protection comparable with the standard that competitors of the EU can already rely on.
The directive will make Europe more attractive for investment in biotechnology and thus help create new jobs and ensure future European input in research and the spinn-off of these investments.
- There were no ratified harmonised laws in Europe on patent rights;
- In the case of biotechnological inventions, harmonised patent law is necessary. The science base in this field is of such a high technological nature, that very substantial amounts are invested in research and development;
- There were too many different interpretations of biotechnology patents which led to a high risk of legal 'heterogeneity' and consequently created a block to biotechnological developments in the single European market.
Research investments need to be payed back through new products, so that new investments for future products can be made. With a workable directive, there is an equilibrium between protection of research results linked to an industrial application and openness to society about the research results.
Only with a workable directive, European research investments can bring new jobs and products to European companies. If European countries depend too much on health and agricultural products from other continents, they loose influence on the direction of innovations, and they fund indirectly the research in other continents.
The first step, a European patent directive, was reached in July 1998. The second step is the implementation of this directive into the national laws of the member states.
It is important that there is a European wide directive, so that the competitiveness of European scientists and companies is not hampered too much if compared to scientists and companies in America or Asia.
So it is necessary to harmonise patent protection in all Member States to ensure that the general principles of patent law are applied to biotechnological inventions in the same way throughout the EU.
The implementation of the directive will guarantee harmonised and reliable patent protection right across the EU. It will also provide a standard of patent protection comparable with the standard that competitors of the EU can already rely on.
The directive will make Europe more attractive for investment in biotechnology and thus help create new jobs and ensure future European input in research and the spinn-off of these investments.
