Commissioner McCreevy satisfied with patent consultation

[ News | Patent Policy consultation]

The Commission replied to a written question of Andrzej Szejna and defends the language policy of the patent consultation. The Commissioner takes the opinion that a three language regime is appropriate for consultations. In his question MEP Szejna mentioned claims that consultations made in such a way may be considered invalid. In the Commission's view the unprecedented interest and levels of participation exceeded all expectations of organisers of the consultation.

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2615/06

by Andrzej Szejna (PSE) to the Commission, Subject: Community patent

Taking into consideration the importance of a well-established and properly functioning patent system for competitiveness, innovation, growth and employment in the knowledge-based economy, the problem of the Community patent system should be addressed.

After the failure to reach an agreement on the regulation on the Community patent, the Commission launched a debate dealing with aspects of the Community patent system. The consultations were closed on 12 April 2006. However, some objections have been raised with regard to the availability of the form for answers, additionally claiming consultations made in such a way may be considered invalid.

Is the outcome of the consultation in accordance with the Commission expectations, and does the Commission consider the feedback from the stakeholder reliable enough to regard the consultations as binding?

P-2615/06EN Answer given by Mr McCreevy on behalf of the Commission (3.7.2006)

The consultation was launched on the website of the Commission's Directorate-General for the Internal Market and Services (DG MARKT) in the form of a questionnaire on 16 January 2006. The text of the questionnaire was available from the outset in three official EU languages (German, French and English). This is the usual practice in the Institutions (the text was non-legislative) and resulted from weighing the prohibitive length of time required to translate into all EU official languages against the necessity for a prompt action in the field of patents and the ability of stakeholders to respond.

A different format (easier to use) was subsequently added on the website, as well as, upon express requests by stakeholders, other linguistic versions (Dutch, Italian and Spanish).

The questionnaire was also sent to a number of stakeholders identified in a way which guaranteed its further dissemination. Finally, stakeholders were invited to reply in their own EU languages, an opportunity which many of them took.

The consultation was a great success in terms of stakeholder participation. Some 2000 replies were received before 12 April 2006 and 837 of those were original individual replies (as opposed to multiple standard form replies), coming from wide-ranging national and professional backgrounds.

In parallel, an identical consultation was launched with European Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) via a new tool developed for that purpose. Results from this consultation tool were sent to the Commission on 15 and 19 June 2006.

The consultation will continue in the form of a public hearing on 12 July 2006 in Brussels.

In the Commission's view, all of the above, including the unprecedented interest and levels of participation experienced in the consultation process which exceeded all expectations, testify to the credibility of the exercise.