The International Federation of Inventors’ Associations

IFIA’s point of view concerning to the upcoming EU patent

 

IFIA Declaration about EU patent

 

IFIA is the voice of inventors, as the unified and unique world federation of national inventors associations and innovation organizations from 88 countries. IFIA includes the majority of patent applicants, who are mostly independent inventors, small and medium enterprises, universities, research institutes and other non-profit organizations.

 

                  The protection of inventions can only serve its purpose, if it is accessible on the relevant markets for all creators. Geographically widespread protection is a necessity. Today access to such protection is limited by its high cost. The costs of a wider international protection for an invention are so high, that a great majority of inventors are practically unable to protect their inventions.

 

                  The European Union (EU), an economical and political formation of 27 European countries, having 500 millions people inhabitants represents a great market. Unfortunately, there is no one common patent, which would be enforced in all EU countries. The present situation consists of separate national patenting into the EU member states using the national languages. Due to the translation costs, the EU patent protection is 10 times more expensive than in the USA market.

 

                  The cost reduction solution of patenting in the EU would be a patent system based on the Community Patent Convention (CPC). Work on the EU patent started in the 1970s, but the resulting CPC was a failure. It was not ratified by enough countries. The latest development in this field is the European Commission proposal (“Proposal for a Council Regulation on the translation arrangements for the European Union patent” on July 2nd, 2010.)

 

The IFIA upholds the interest of the majority of patent applicants for fast realization of the EU patent.

 

Finally the IFIA strongly supports the above proposal which will accelerate innovation worldwide and it will not only be an efficient anti-crisis tool, but also be particularly beneficial for SMEs.

 

This document is adopted by the General Assembly of the IFIA, in Nuremberg on the 29th of October 2010.

Dr. András Vedres President