Upcoming EC/EPO Workshop: Harmonisation of Industrial Property Rights in Europe’s neighbouring countries

27 octobre 2008

Désolé. Actuellement, cette page n'existe pas en français.

The harmonisation of Industrial Property Rights (IPR) across national borders will be at the centre of a two-day workshop conducted on 28/29 October 2008 at the EPO's headquarters in Munich.

At the event, the European Commission (EC) and the EPO will discuss future strategies with representatives from 16 of Europe's neighbours. Officially, these are all countries neighbouring Europe by land or sea. Russia, though also a neighbour, is instead defined through a specific Strategic Partnership.

"As a means to intensify trade exchanges between the EU member states and the European neighbouring countries, the harmonisation of the national legal framework with the European acquis deserves dedicated efforts," said Pascal Phlix, Coordinator of the unit European Integration and Neighbourhood at the EPO.

Setting the course

Keynote speeches will include an overview of European Neighbourhood Policy by Andreas Herdina, Head of Unit European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) Sector Coordination at the EC. The policy aims, among other overall objectives, at facilitating trade with Europe's neighbouring countries and therefore providing an adequate legal and administrative framework.

To this end, experts from both the EC and EPO will outline ways to strengthen the industrial property systems in the European Neighbourhood. On 29 October, delegations from neighbouring countries will present detailed results on the development of their national IP systems over the past two years.

Moving ahead as partners

While the EC's Neighbourhood Policy provides instruments and funding for technical assistance, the EPO provides the necessary know-how and networking capabilities, in particular in co-operation with the national offices of its member states in the field of industrial property.

"The cooperation between the EPO and the EC has already proven very effective when it comes to Industrial Property," said Phlix.

He pointed to the recent enlargement of the European Union: New EU members as well as candidate and potential candidate countries also took steps for the purpose of EU accession to ratify the European Patent Convention (EPC) which is part of the European acquis communautaire. This means adopting the legal framework of the European Patent Convention (EPC) as the basis for national patenting practice.

"We will now apply this successful co-operation to Europe's neighbouring countries," Phlix said, adding: "Trade will be facilitated if Industrial Property systems in neighbouring countries match the system of the rest of Europe".

Further information

• European Neighbourhood Policy