Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The term of European Patent Office (EPO) President Benoît Battistelli has been extended for three years to 30 June 2018. The vote by the European Patent Organisation Administrative Council strongly backed Battistelli's quality and efficiency reforms, but sparked unhappiness from staff who see the president as a “dictator”.
ATHENS - In what the representative of a major consumer group called a “big step,” World Intellectual Property Organization Director General Francis Gurry on 6 June called for development of a seamless, global, legal, digital content marketplace that could offer the chance to bridge seemingly intractable copyright issues. Speaking at a conference in Athens hosted by the Greek EU Presidency on copyright and Europe's digital agenda, Gurry said the search for such a market should take the form of a dialogue that includes all stakeholders.
Search engines don't cause internet piracy but they could do more to stamp it out, the UK Prime Minister's intellectual property advisor says in a new paper.
Relations between European Patent Office (EPO) staff and senior officials, already tense due to work issues with President Benoît Battistelli, have been further undermined by the continuing presence of Vice-President Željko Topić, according to a source close to the situation. Claims about Topić's suitability for office by one of his former employees at the Croatian State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) have now reached the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), while a petition by the Association for the Advancement of the Rule of Law (Juris Protecta) in Croatia has been filed in the European Parliament.
European Patent Office (EPO) employees on 13 March approved seven office-wide strike days, starting on 21 March. The move follows an increasingly tense stand-off between the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) and President Benoît Battistelli over, as a union document put it, timely access to justice, freedom of speech and freedom of association. The deteriorating relationship between employees and office officials prompted one French lawmaker to ask government ministers to rethink their country's support for Battistelli's reappointment. If unresolved, the labour issues could end up subjecting the EPO to closer scrutiny as it prepares to administer the EU unitary patent, one source close to the situation said.
The European Union Unified Patent Court agreement has not yet been fully ratified but plans are on track to ensure that the judges who staff it are of the highest quality, speakers said at today’s opening ceremony for the judicial training centre in Budapest, Hungary. Future UPC users still have some concerns about the new system, but are giving it a generally good reception, the chairman of the UPC Preparatory Committee said.
Patent quality is top priority for the European Patent Office, which “wants to be the best in the world,” President Benoît Battistelli said in a 5 March interview. The office's latest annual report shows that patent filings are at an all-time high, and that Europe is an innovation hub. The office's push for excellence, however, has sparked some staff resistance, Battistelli said.
Efforts to update European Union trademark law have slowed amid political differences and squabbles over some provisions of the reform package, representatives from the European Commission (EC), European Parliament and trademark community say. Contrary to the wishes of the EC and lawmakers, the legislation will not be completed before European parliamentary elections in May.
Copyright tops the European Union intellectual property agenda this year, with completion of a collective rights management directive, and European Commission statements on IP rights enforcement and possible revisions to EU copyright rules, due this spring. “Steady progress” on rollout of a unified EU patent and patent court system is expected, and trademark and other issues also figure prominently. But with European Parliament elections in May, and a new Commission in November, the timetables for these and other IP-related issues could shift, the EC and others said.
The rise of cybercrime and industrial espionage, including alleged economic spying by the US National Security Agency, calls for a pan-European system to protect trade secrets, the European Commission said on 27 November. A recent survey showed that one in five European companies has suffered at least one attempt to steal its trade secrets in the past 10 years, the EC said, and the numbers are rising. It proposed legislation to safeguard undisclosed know-how and business information against unlawful theft and abuse. Industry generally hailed the proposal, though one law firm said it lacks some enforcement teeth.