[Patents] Results of the Paris conference on patents

[Alessandro Muzzetta muzzetta@liotro.dipmat.unict.it]

According to "Le Monde", the nineteen member states of the European 
Union decided on June 24/25, at the Paris IP conference, that they 
should meet again within a year to decide on the adoption of new 
measures for the reform of the European patent system.
 
The original article can be found at:

        http://www.lemonde.fr/article/0,2320,12914,00.html
  
Below is a French to English translation done by Babelfish 
(babelfish.altavista.com):
  
  
  -- begin article --
  Updated Friday June 25, 1999
  
  With the INITIATIVE of France, an intergovernmental conference
  joined together the nineteen European countries members of the
  European Patent Office, Thursday 24 and Friday June 25 in Paris. Its
  object : to release from the tracks of study to reform the European
  patents, to lower the cost and to give them a better legal security of it.
  
  Economic weapon, the patent is used little in Europe : a quarter of the
  companies, for the majority of the great groups, protect their
  inventions. Long and expensive procedures obstruct the access of
  them. Delivered by the European Patent Office, located in Munich,
  each title is burst thereafter in as many national patents deposited in
  the nineteen Member States. What generates expenses of translation
  and significant taxes. « For European SME, the cost of [ obtaining on
  average 160 000 francs ] of a patent is ten times higher than for his
  counterpart American », explains one with the cabinet of the
  Secretary of State to industry, Christian Pierret. Other through : the
  companies are not ensured to have same legal protection in all the
  countries. For a same litigation, of counterfeit for example, the
  decisions of the courts can be different from one country to another.
  
  The French government proposes to limit the translations, in order to
  reduce the costs. It advances also the idea to create a limited number
  of courts specialized in the monitoring of the patents and to entrust to
  the arbitration certain litigations, while waiting for the introduction of a
  single patent for the single market. These measurements will be
  studied. The nineteen Member States should meet again in a year to
  decide on their adoption.
  
  Orange Martine 
  
  The World Saturday June 26, 1999
  
  -- end article --