
Logic Patents > Reviews > EuroParl 03-09-24 > Amendments > JURI > Reject > Harmonisation > TRIPs
Harmonisation	TRIPs	EPC	EPO

Meaning of TRIPs

The TRIPs treaty sets rules for the purpose of avoiding trade frictions and securing free trade. These rules are necessarily abstract in nature. At the level of EU legislation, they need to be concretised. The EPO and friends fails to do this, instead they propose to directly put the abstract terminology of TRIPs at the judiciary's disposal, so that they can set the rules as they please. Moreover they explain TRIPs in ways that make it impossible for lawcourts to return to a sane interpretation of the European Patent Convention.

Amendment 185

submitted by:: Piia-Noora Kauppi
provision:: rec 6
language:: English
topic:: TRIPs

amendment
The Community and its Member States are bound by the Agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS), approved by Council Decision 94/800/EC of 22 December 1994 concerning the conclusion on behalf of the European Community, as regards matters within its competence, of the agreements reached in the Uruguay Round multilateral negotiations (1986-1994). Article 27(1) of TRIPS provides that patents shall be available for any inventions, whether products or processes, in all fields of technology, provided that they are new, involve an inventive step and are capable of industrial application. Moreover, according to TRIPS, patent rights should be available and patent rights enjoyable without discrimination as to the field of technology. These principles should accordingly apply to computer-implemented inventions.	The Community and its Member States are bound by the Agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS), approved by Council Decision 94/800/EC of 22 December 1994 concerning the conclusion on behalf of the European Community, as regards matters within its competence, of the agreements reached in the Uruguay Round multilateral negotiations (1986-1994).
justification
Self-explanatory.

Amendment 186

submitted by:: Barbara Kudrycka, Tadeusz Zwiefka
provision:: rec 6
language:: English
topic:: TRIPs

amendment
The Community and its Member States are bound by the Agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS), approved by Council Decision 94/800/EC of 22 December 1994 concerning the conclusion on behalf of the European Community, as regards matters within its competence, of the agreements reached in the Uruguay Round multilateral negotiations (1986-1994). Article 27(1) of TRIPS provides that patents shall be available for any inventions, whether products or processes, in all fields of technology, provided that they are new, involve an inventive step and are capable of industrial application. Moreover, according to that Article, patent rights should be available and patent rights enjoyable without discrimination as to the field of technology. These principles should accordingly apply to computer-implemented inventions.	The Community and its Member States are bound by the Agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS), approved by Council Decision 94/800/EC of 22 December 1994 concerning the conclusion on behalf of the European Community, as regards matters within its competence, of the agreements reached in the Uruguay Round multilateral negotiations (1986-1994). Article 27(1) of TRIPS provides that patents shall be available for any inventions, whether products or processes, in all fields of technology, provided that they are new, involve an inventive step and are capable of industrial application. Moreover, according to that Article, patent rights should be available and patent rights enjoyable without discrimination as to the field of technology. This means that patentability must be effectively limited in terms of general concepts such as
justification
It must be made clear that there are limits as to what can be subsumed under "fields of technology" according to Art 27 TRIPS and that this article is not designed to mandate unlimited patentability but rather to avoid frictions in free trade, which can be caused by undue exceptions as well as by undue extensions to patentability. This interpretation of TRIPS is indirectly confirmed by lobbying of the US government last year against Art 27 TRIPS, on the account that it excludes business method patents, which the US government wants to mandate by the new Substantive Patent Law Treaty draft. In its first reading, Parliament deleted this recital, and therefore the amendment that proposed the above change was not voted upon. Deletion is better than keeping the original, but clarification regarding the applicability and interpretation of the TRIPs agreement is better.

Amendment 187

submitted by:: Fausto Bertinotti
provision:: rec 6
language:: English
topic:: TRIPs

amendment
The Community and its Member States are bound by the Agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS), approved by Council Decision 94/800/EC of 22 December 1994 concerning the conclusion on behalf of the European Community, as regards matters within its competence, of the agreements reached in the Uruguay Round multilateral negotiations (1986-1994). Article 27(1) of TRIPS provides that patents shall be available for any inventions, whether products or processes, in all fields of technology, provided that they are new, involve an inventive step and are capable of industrial application. Moreover, according to that Article, patent rights should be available and patent rights enjoyable without discrimination as to the field of technology. These principles should accordingly apply to computer-implemented inventions.	The Community and its Member States are bound by the Agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS), approved by Council Decision 94/800/EC of 22 December 1994 concerning the conclusion on behalf of the European Community, as regards matters within its competence, of the agreements reached in the Uruguay Round multilateral negotiations (1986-1994) 1. Article 27(1) of TRIPS provides that patents shall be available for any inventions, whether products or processes, in all fields of technology, provided that they are new, involve an inventive step and are capable of industrial application. Moreover, according to that Article, patent rights should be available and patent rights enjoyable without discrimination as to the field of technology. This means that patentability must be effectively limited in terms of general concepts such as
justification
It must be made clear that there are limits as to what can be subsumed under "fields of technology" according to Art 27 TRIPS and that this article is not designed to mandate unlimited patentability but rather to avoid frictions in free trade, which can be caused by undue exceptions as well as by undue extensions to patentability. This interpretation of TRIPS is indirectly confirmed by lobbying of the US government last year against Art 27 TRIPS, on the account that it excludes business method patents, which the US government wants to mandate by the new Substantive Patent Law Treaty draft. In its first reading, Parliament deleted this recital, and therefore the amendment that proposed the above change was not voted upon. Deletion is better than keeping the original, but clarification regarding the applicability and interpretation of the TRIPs agreement is better.

Amendment 188

submitted by:: Manuel Medina Ortega
provision:: Considerando 6
topic:: TRIPs

amendment
La Comunidad y sus Estados miembros están obligados por el Acuerdo sobre los Aspectos de los Derechos de Propiedad Intelectual relacionados con el Comercio (ADPIC), aprobado mediante la Decisión 94/800/CE del Consejo, de 22 de diciembre de 1994, relativa a la celebración en nombre de la Comunidad Europea, por lo que respecta a los temas de su competencia, de los acuerdos resultantes de las negociaciones multilaterales de la Ronda Uruguay (1986-1994) 1. El apartado 1 del artículo 27 del acuerdo ADPIC establece que las patentes podrán obtenerse por todas las invenciones, sean de productos o de procedimientos, en todos los campos de la tecnología, siempre que sean nuevas, entrañen una actividad inventiva y sean susceptibles de aplicación industrial. Además, según este mismo artículo, las patentes se podrán obtener y los derechos de patente se podrán ejercer sin discriminación por el campo de la tecnología. En consecuencia, estos principios deben aplicarse a las invenciones implementadas en ordenador.	La Comunidad y sus Estados miembros están obligados por el Acuerdo sobre los Aspectos de los Derechos de Propiedad Intelectual relacionados con el Comercio (ADPIC), aprobado mediante la Decisión 94/800/CE del Consejo, de 22 de diciembre de 1994, relativa a la celebración en nombre de la Comunidad Europea, por lo que respecta a los temas de su competencia, de los acuerdos resultantes de las negociaciones multilaterales de la Ronda Uruguay (1986-1994) 1. El apartado 1 del artículo 27 del acuerdo ADPIC establece que las patentes podrán obtenerse por todas las invenciones, sean de productos o de procedimientos, en todos los campos de la tecnología, siempre que sean nuevas, entrañen una actividad inventiva y sean susceptibles de aplicación industrial. Además, según este mismo artículo, las patentes se podrán obtener y los derechos de patente se podrán ejercer sin discriminación por el campo de la tecnología. Esto significa que esa patentabilidad debe limitarse efectivamente a términos de conceptos generales tales como
justification
Debe dejarse claro que hay límites en cuanto a lo que puede incluirse bajo

Amendment 189

submitted by:: Evelin Lichtenberger, Monica Frassoni
provision:: rec 6
language:: English
topic:: TRIPs

amendment
The Community and its Member States are bound by the Agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS), approved by Council Decision 94/800/EC of 22 December 1994 concerning the conclusion on behalf of the European Community, as regards matters within its competence, of the agreements reached in the Uruguay Round multilateral negotiations (1986-1994) 1. Article 27(1) of TRIPS provides that patents shall be available for any inventions, whether products or processes, in all fields of technology, provided that they are new, involve an inventive step and are capable of industrial application. Moreover, according to that Article, patent rights should be available and patent rights enjoyable without discrimination as to the field of technology. These principles should accordingly apply to computer-implemented inventions.	The Community and its Member States are bound by the Agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS), approved by Council Decision 94/800/EC of 22 December 1994 concerning the conclusion on behalf of the European Community, as regards matters within its competence, of the agreements reached in the Uruguay Round multilateral negotiations (1986-1994). Article 27(1) of TRIPS provides that patents shall be available for any inventions, whether products or processes, in all fields of technology, provided that they are new, involve an inventive step and are capable of industrial application. Moreover, according to that Article, patent rights should be available and patent rights enjoyable without discrimination as to the field of technology. These principles should accordingly apply to computer-assisted inventions. Nevertheless, the field of software is not considered to be a field of technology.
justification
Patents are intended for inventions of a material nature. Copyright is intended for works of a conceptual nature, and this includes software. Software, like books, music or intellectual methods, is not therefore a field of technology within the meaning of TRIPS.

[ The Need for Harmonisation > Meaning of TRIPs | Interpretation of the European Patent Convention | Controlling the EPO ]

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© 2005-06-12 Hartmut PILCH
english version 2005-03-20 by Hartmut PILCH