STANDING COMMITTEE ON THE LAW OF PATENTS
15th Session
(Geneva, 11 to 15 October 2010)
Statement by the EU and its Member States on the preliminary study on standards and patents (SCP/13/2)Mr. Chairman,
1.On behalf of the European Union and its twenty-seven Member States, we wish to thank the Secretariat for the preparation of the preliminary study regarding standards and patents. This study provides clear general descriptions of standards and standard-setting processes. It refers to the need to clarify relationships between the standardisation system and the patent system and provides information on possible mechanisms for preventing conflicts.
2.The study tackles a large number of important issues, including the patent policies of standard-setting organizations, patent pools, legal mechanisms within the patent system, competition law aspects, dispute settlement and technical and patent information available under the patent system and the standardisation system.
3.The EU and its Member States would like to stress once again that we attach importance to these issues. For example, the question of “Industrial Property Rights and Competition” is one of the challenges identified (as point 3.4.) in the European Commission’s document, “An industrial property rights strategy for Europe”, published in July 2008. Within the framework of this strategy the Commission also intends to make an assessment of the interplay between intellectual property rights and standards, particularly in information and communications technologies.
4.The EU and its Member States believe that the continuation of debates on these matters will be helpful.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.