Bolkestein threatens to withdraw patent plans

Date: 21/11/02

By Peter Chapman

FRITS Bolkestein, the single market commissioner, has threatened to withdraw his proposals for a business-friendly pan-EU community patent after member states once more failed to back it.

Governments at last week's meeting of EU competitiveness ministers opposed part of the proposal calling for a central EU body to take jurisdiction over disputes on patent registrations. Many demanded a key role for their own national courts and patent offices, which stand to lose out financially if a central system is implemented.

But Bolkestein said he could not accept such 'watering down' of his three-year-old proposals because companies would 'run the risk of potential legal actions before courts in each and every member state which could adopt divergent interpretations of disputed patents'.

He said he would rather withdraw the proposal if governments fail to agree a system close to his initial blueprint.

'Let me be absolutely clear. The Commission will not endorse a watered-down community patent that industry will not use.

'We cannot allow such a vital measure to be sacrificed on the altar of petty national interests. I will not agree to a community patent that would be a white elephant.'

The outspoken former leader of the Dutch Liberal Party took a swipe at member states over their failure to match their rhetoric over EU competitiveness with action.

The patent plan was flagged up at the milestone Lisbon 2000 summit - where EU leaders promised to take measures to catapult European countries to top place in the world competitiveness stakes by 2010 at the latest.

'The failure to agree on the community patent undermines the credibility of the whole enterprise,' said Bolkestein. He said the newly reformed competitiveness council - which groups EU ministers responsible for industry and single market issues - had so far proved a misnomer.

'When it comes to agreeing measures that would actually make a concrete contribution to improving competitiveness, it has failed to bite the bullet. Instead there has been an awful lot of talk, much of it about process.'

Patent experts at UNICE, the EU employers association, last week said the Union should only continue to press for a deal on patents if the end result was as cheap and effective as the system in place in the United States.

'A bad solution is a solution that the industry will not use. It would consequently be a useless solution,' said Thierry Sueur, also a director of French gas company Air Liquide.

Frits Bolkestein, the Single Market Commissioner, has threatened to withdraw his proposals for a business-friendly pan-EU community patent after Member States once more failed to back it.