OECD ministers call for closer scrutiny of the patent system

10. Patenting has accelerated rapidly in the past decade, with the number of patent applications filed in Europe, Japan and the United States increasing by 40% between 1992 and 2002, from 600 000 to 850 000 per year. The effects of such patenting on incentives to innovate, on the diffusion of scientific and technical knowledge and on competition remain unclear and vary across industry sectors and technological fields. In this regard, Ministers welcomed the OECD report on "Patents and InnovationTrends and Policy Challenges", and encouraged continuation of OECD work in this area.

11. Although not widespread, cases of restricted access to patented inventions and delays in conducting or publishing research, indicate that governments must remain vigilant in ensuring that patenting does not unnecessarily hinder access to knowledge, reduce incentives to disseminate knowledge, or impede follow-on innovation. Ministers recognised the growing importance of patent licences and other market-based transactions in fostering knowledge diffusion and agreed that policy should encourage their development. Ministers further shared the view that IPR regimes need to protect researchers' access to fundamental inventions, such as through exemptions for research use of patented inventions.

12.The more important patents become to economic growth and performance, the more necessary it will be to ensure the quality of patents awarded while minimising their overall costs to society. Ministers welcomed the steps that a number of countries have already taken in that direction, and agreed that good practices in this area should be emulated. In this context, they encouraged the development of efforts to forge closer co-operation among major patent offices towards a more coherent global patent system.