By Filipe Rufino - 18th April 2007
Munich: German chancellor Angela Merkel backed European commission calls on Wednesday to reopen the debate over the need for an EU-wide patent system.
Speaking to 600 intellectual property rights experts in Munich, Merkel underscored the link between better legislation on scientific patents and Europe’s future economic growth.
“We do not have many natural resources in Europe,” she said. Furthermore, the EU would likely face “serious” problem in the future “if we do not protect our intellectual property”, she warned.
Her speech follows the commission’s proposal on 3 April to establish a harmonised EU patent litigation system, and to reject a similar 2003 commission proposal. Berlin is set to hold meetings with the EU executive in May and June over the issue, a commission source said.
Competition from rising Asian economies is at the heart of Merkel’s push for stronger legislation, a European patent office (EPO) official told this website. Merkel also said that the EPO, which employs 6000 and provides a uniform application procedure for patent protection in 37 European countries, should be beefed up.
“We need to have a robust European patent office, I am convinced of that,” she said. “Nothing is possible without people and nothing is lasting without institutions,” she added, quoting Jean Monnet, one of the key proponents of EU integration in the 1950s.
It was the first time that a German chancellor has spoken at the EPO since the launch of the institution 30 years ago, EPO chief Alain Pompidou said. The EPO has its headquarters in Munich and branches in The Hague, Berlin and Vienna.
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