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Europe well-positioned in eco-innovation, determined to become world leader
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Meeting in Ljubljana on 6-7 May, the participants at the European Patent Forum fired an opening shot for a broad discussion about if and how the patent system needs to be redesigned to foster innovation to combat climate change. They agreed that innovation and the development of new eco-technologies have a vital role to play in this race against time.
European Patent Forum staged vital debate on functioning of patent system
Ljubljana , 7 May 2008 - Policy-makers, patent scientists and business representatives gathered in Ljubljana to assess the performance of the current patent system and put the spotlight on a crucial factor for Europe's bid to lead the world towards effective actions against climate change.
Alison Brimelow, President of the European Patent Office, said: "Europe has set global standards with its policy on climate protection. If effective climate protection is a political aim of the EU, then the same must apply to its innovation policy and the intellectual property rights that support that policy." Referring to a new set of statistics on patenting trends in energy-related technologies, Alison Brimelow explained: "The current patenting trend is clearly focused on new and alternative energy sources. Europe is well positioned in the field of energy generation and transformation technologies when compared to Japan or the United States of America. But past performance does not guarantee future success."
The Slovenian Minister of Economy Andrej Vizjak explained: "The initial reaction to a new challenge such as climate change is to think about limitations like restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions, bans on the use of particular chemicals, and so on. But if we wish to ensure an appropriate future for humankind, we need to go beyond limitations and find innovative, creative solutions." He continued: "The intellectual property protection systems will have to follow an increasingly rapid pace of development by expediting procedures and enabling faster access to data. These systems should provide for the simplest possible access to new solutions for all, irrespective of their economic power."
Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen stated: "In order to successfully tackle climate change, we will have to provide better access to intellectual property right protection and enforcement, improve the market for patent licensing, optimize the use of freely available patent information, and promote the knowledge transfer between the public and private sector."
The conference also focused on questions of cost and access to new technologies. These issues are of huge concern to both SMEs as important eco-inventors and developing countries whose ability to contribute to combating global warming is constrained by the cost and availability of green technologies. Participants offered a broad range of proposals on how to reform the current patent system, ranging from the introduction of "fast-track procedures" for patent applications in the climate sector to the establishment of licensing regime known as "soft IP", or the "Green Intellectual Property Project" which would pay a proportion of patent-derived income into a trust fund for supporting the development of patent-protected green technologies.
A clear consensus could be reached, however, that the patent system must not become an obstacle to the development of green technologies in Europe. Consequently, conference speakers demanded that the practice of using patents to handicap or block the efforts of competitors must not be allowed to creep into the sector of eco-innovation as many believe it has in the area of communication and information technologies.
More information and audiovisual materials are available on the European Inventor of the Year 2008 pages.
For more information, please contact:
Rainer Osterwalder
Press Department, European Patent Office
D-80298 Munich
Tel.: +49 89/2399-1820
Fax: +49 89/2399-2850
Mobile: +49
163/8399-527
rosterwalder@epo.org