Erik Nooteboom and Software Patents
Director, Industrial Property, DG Internal Market
2004-11-09 Participated in EIF parallel event
CV: http://www.european-patent-office.org/epidos/conf/pat_eac01/pdf/abstracts/4_nooteboom.pdf
http://www.managingip.com/includes/magazine/PRINT.asp?SID=524241&ISS=17580&PUBID=34
- Erik Nooteboom European Commission Erik Nooteboom is head of the industrial property unit in the European Commission's internal market directorate-general and is described by many as the key man for IP in Brussels. Indeed, Nooteboom has held responsibility for the Community patent, the computer-implemented inventions directive, the Community trade mark and the Community design, and the enforcement directive. In addition he deals with any WIPO and WTO related matters and works in close cooperation with OHIM and the European Patent Office. Producing results is what matters for the Dutchman, who joined the Commission 1987 from a background as legal adviser. He has been in his current position since 1998. Without his hard work in the past year, it remains doubtful how smoothly the linkage between the EU's OHIM-administered Community trade mark system and the WIPO-administered international trade mark system, the Madrid Protocol, would have been put in place. The link was a historical step in the IP field, allowing trade mark owners around the world to extend their existing registration to all 25 EU countries and CTM holders to extend their registration to all Madrid member countries. Nooteboom is also behind the discussions to abolish national searches as well as proposals to reduce CTM registration and renewal fees. More recently he initiated a process aimed at fostering more cooperation between national trade mark offices and OHIM, a move pushed for by EU member states. In the coming year Nooteboom will play an important role in the Commission's plans to improve the EU patent system and restart the Community patent discussions, which stalled in May 2004 after member states failed to come to an agreement on the system's scope. Nooteboom has clearly expressed his frustration about this and as long as he is around, IP owners should not give up their hopes for an EU-wide patent system.
The most controversial issue Nooteboom has been involved in during the past year is the so-called software patent directive. Debates seemed to have reached their climax at the end of last year when discussions between member states, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers stalled and the Commission threatened to scrap the law entirely. But the Commission's continued discussions with all those involved eventually pushed the draft law further through the EU's law-making process, although it finally hit the buffers in the European Parliament in July this year. The Commission is also expected to push forward EU accession to the international design registration system, the Hague Agreement. Producing results is what matters for the Dutchman, who joined the Commission 1987 from a background as legal adviser. He has been in his current position since 1998.
- Erik Nooteboom European Commission Erik Nooteboom is head of the industrial property unit in the European Commission's internal market directorate-general and is described by many as the key man for IP in Brussels. Indeed, Nooteboom has held responsibility for the Community patent, the computer-implemented inventions directive, the Community trade mark and the Community design, and the enforcement directive. In addition he deals with any WIPO and WTO related matters and works in close cooperation with OHIM and the European Patent Office. Producing results is what matters for the Dutchman, who joined the Commission 1987 from a background as legal adviser. He has been in his current position since 1998. Without his hard work in the past year, it remains doubtful how smoothly the linkage between the EU's OHIM-administered Community trade mark system and the WIPO-administered international trade mark system, the Madrid Protocol, would have been put in place. The link was a historical step in the IP field, allowing trade mark owners around the world to extend their existing registration to all 25 EU countries and CTM holders to extend their registration to all Madrid member countries. Nooteboom is also behind the discussions to abolish national searches as well as proposals to reduce CTM registration and renewal fees. More recently he initiated a process aimed at fostering more cooperation between national trade mark offices and OHIM, a move pushed for by EU member states. In the coming year Nooteboom will play an important role in the Commission's plans to improve the EU patent system and restart the Community patent discussions, which stalled in May 2004 after member states failed to come to an agreement on the system's scope. Nooteboom has clearly expressed his frustration about this and as long as he is around, IP owners should not give up their hopes for an EU-wide patent system.
