House of Lords - European Communities - Twenty-Sixth Report

House of Lords portcullis

House of Lords

Session 1997-98
Publications on the internet
European Communities Committee Reports

European Communities - Twenty-Sixth Report

Here you can browse the report together with the Proceedings of the Committee. The published report was ordered by the House of Lords to be printed 9 June 1998.

CONTENTS

REPORT

Paragraph

PART 1 INTRODUCTION 1

PART 2 ISSUES AND EVIDENCE 8

The value of patents to United Kingdom industry
8

The present European patent system
13

Potential advantages and disadvantages of a Community patent
18

Defects in the Community patent system in the Luxembourg Convention
22

(a) Translation Costs
23

(b) Judicial Arrangements
41

Basic Structure 50

Relationship with existing Community Courts
53

Staffing, workload, costs
55

(c) Other Defects
57

(i) Exhaustion of rights
57

(ii) Compulsory Licensing
59

(iii)Prior Use
60

(iv) Renewal Fees
61

Further action—the choice of legal instrument—Convention or Regulation
63

The implications for the development of patent laws and policy at national and international level
67

Relationship between any Community instrument and the European Patent Convention
71

PART 3 OPINION 74

Language/translations
78

Judicial arrangements
85

Other issues
92

Prior use, compulsory licensing, exhaustion of rights
93

Renewal fees
95

Convention or regulation?
97

Further harmonisation—the European Patent
102

Conclusion
105

Recommendation
106

Appendix 1—Membership of the Sub-Committee
Appendix 2—List of Witnesses

NOTE: Pages of the Report and Appendices are numbered in bold type. References in the text of the Report are as follows:

(Q) refers to a question in oral evidence
(p) refers to a page of the Report or Appendices or to a page of evidence

© Parliamentary copyright 1998