Developments in European information issues: Networks and relays – Services – Products, May 2002

IPR Helpdesk back

The IPR Helpdesk was launched in 1998 as part of a pilot project supported by the Commission to provide advice on intellectual property rights to companies and organisations involved in EU research projects. The service came to an end in August 2001 when the pilot reached its term. However after a short hiatus, a new project began in January 2002 under a different contractor. The University of Alicante is now responsible for co-ordinating a consortium which is aiming to provide an improved and upgraded service. Initially a limited service is being offered. The Helpline became properly operational on 1st May but it is not expected that all the other facilities will be fully available until the end of June 2002. The first step has been the creation of a new website at http://www.ipr-helpdesk.org/index.htm with a link to the previous site and all its existing content. The new site also offers a news section and access to the University of Alicante's legal resources portal on intellectual property and the information society (UAIPIT). The UAIPIT portal can be reached directly at http://www.uaipit.com/en/index.jsp and has its own flexible advanced search system. Content includes the subject areas of inventions, copyright, distinctive designs and the information society. Types of material covered are legislation, case-law and publications from the EU, from member states and beyond, though it is not comprehensive. You can find, for example, the text in PDF of the recent Swiss legislation on the protection of industrial design. The IPR Helpdesk web site will also have a search engine offering both a standard and advanced option but neither is yet functioning. As the site and the linked portal develop, this should prove a valuable resource for intellectual property rights and related issues queries.

EP Debates Index

The European Parliament has published a five volume set of Methodological tables of debates, 1984-1999 on its web site at http://www.europarl.eu.int/cre/tables.htm. This edition was prepared using the Parliament's EPOQUE database. The analytic tables consist of:

Vol.1: list of texts adopted by the EP presented chronologically, by part-session and by day
Vol.2: list of debates arranged as in Vol.1
Vol.3: a subject index to the debates and texts adopted
Vol.4: list of all MEPs and other individuals who have spoken in EP debates
Vol.5: list of the main addressees of the resolutions adopted by the EP
Vol.3 includes EUROVOC descriptors. For Vol.5, the vast majority of resolutions are addressed to the Council of the Commission, but others - in particular the own-initiative resolutions - may be addressed to a variety of bodies from ASEAN to the applicant countries governments so this volume provides a useful access route based on that information.

Indexing of the European Parliament debates, resolutions and decisions is complicated by the lack of an official EP numbering system, so for the purposes of this publication - but without any official status - a numbering convention has been adopted using a four digit code preceded by the letter D for debates (Dnnnn) and a similar pattern using the letter T for references to the table of texts adopted. Vol.1 therefore identifies references by codes starting with T0001, while Vol.2 uses the sequence D0001 onwards. Vols.3, 4 and 5 need to be used in conjunction with either Vol.1 or Vol.2 to identify the reference source.

Originally the Debates of the European Parliament were published in paper or on microfiche as an Annex to the Official Journal. They included the annual index tables up until - for the English language text - the part-sessions of 1983/84 of the end of May. In 1996 the European Parliament Directorate General for Research produced a 2 volume set, also drawn from the EPOQUE database, entitled Index of debates: second legislative term (OOPEC, 1996) and published in the series EP Research and Documentation Papers. The latest development is therefore to be warmly welcomed to fill the gap from 1994. The PDF files are however large and despite the thumbnails to aid navigation through the documents, this electronic format is not the easiest to use to access such information.

For the latest parliamentary term, the data is accessible electronically. The Debates are available from 1999 on CD-ROM and from 1996 on the Parliament's web site at http://www.europarl.eu.int/plenary/default_en.htm/. They can be searched by word, speaker or date. Also at the same address are the texts adopted from 1994. Note however the current “under construction” warning sign which alerts users that a reference number or keyword search will work only on texts adopted before the end of December 2001. Documents published after that date will be accessible only by the date of adoption. Other search routes, such as the debates or the Legislative Observatory, are advised in order to track texts where the date of adoption is not known. This is due to changes in the numbering scheme applied to legislative texts in the European Parliament. It has affected also the hyperlinks between parliamentary committee reports and the texts adopted in plenary, which will be temporarily out of service from January 2002. No indication is given of when the work will be completed.