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Discussions at the European Patent Forum
The end and the starting point of a project
At this conference top IP professionals from Europe and beyond gathered to discuss the challenges the IP system may face over the next two decades. The diversity of participants was impressive and showed the extent to which intellectual property has penetrated every aspect of our lives.
IP now matters a lot to many people: it has become omnipresent in our modern knowledge economy. And with its growing importance, the complexity of IP has also increased. It is no longer about simply protecting what you have invented. It goes far beyond that.
The following issues, among many others, were discussed at the conference:
TRIPS - a blessing or curse for developing countries
Within the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS agreement) sets minimum standards for the protection of intellectual property. In a lively debate, participants discussed whether this is beneficial or detrimental to developing countries.
Some argued that TRIPS has prepared the ground for foreign investment in developing countries, thereby fostering the diffusion of technology and capital in these countries. Others held the view that TRIPS prevents developing countries from creating their own knowledge base. TRIPS was seen by them as an imposition by the developed world to safeguard its global power.
Money instead of monopolies
Patents confer to the holder the right to prevent others from selling, offering or using the patented invention. While this was seen as the appropriate means of protection for innovation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it was felt by many to be unsuitable for the collaborative innovation processes of the 21st century.
Patents are considered by some to block the modern innovation and technological diffusion process. They see the only solution to this problem in a weakening of patent rights in order to balance the system. A "license of right" regime in which exclusive patent rights are transformed into the right to collect license fees - money instead of monopoly - was specifically addressed.
Some regarded the introduction of a prize system parallel to or instead of the patent system as necessary in the pharmaceutical sector. Such a system, they argued, would create incentives in the medical field without leading to exaggerated and unaffordable prices for medication. This view was contradicted by the pharmaceutical industry. They feel that the strongest possible patent rights are necessary to compensate the huge investment needed for pharmaceutical inventions.
Patents and the societal contract
The patent system is designed as a social contract: the inventor is granted certain rights in return for making the idea behind the invention public. Society wins twice in this system, by providing incentives for future innovation and by enlarging the societal knowledge base. However, many saw the current system as flawed. Low quality patents were seen as a cause for the failure of this societal contract.
Remedies were proposed such as the USPTO peer review project, which is to be launched on 1 June 2007. Others argued that the backlog (number of unexamined patent applications) at patent offices was so high that the value of granted patents was largely vanishing. This was seen to apply in particular to fast-growing technologies, where the time involved in getting a patent is far longer than a product cycle.
The patent system - a limitless system eating up itself
Many saw an ongoing expansion of the limits of patentability and referred to software, business methods and genetic inventions. In the context of genetic inventions, many felt the subject-matter belongs to nature and has been wrongly appropriated by patents. A limitless system, one participant said, would destroy itself in the end.
The above issues are critical and will impact the IP system of the future. Three years ago, the European Patent Office therefore started its "Scenarios for the Future" project, analysing the major driving forces behind IP. During the European Patent Forum, the final outcome of this project, the book "Scenarios for the future" was presented. This book contains further information and opinions about these issues - among many others - and hopefully will become the reference point for any forthcoming discussions on the future of IP.