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The Market Mogul covers why the European Patent Office's (EPO) current patent filing system may be stifling innovation. Among many other reasons, the European Patent Office prioritizes the applications from large multinationals over smaller European businesses from any of 38 European nations. Not quite half of all European patent applications come from the EPO member states, followed by the US, Japan, China and South Korea. Another large point of contention caused by the EPO is their granting of software patents in direct violations of the European Patent Convention (EPC).
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Is European Patent Office Filing a Rigged Game in Europe?
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(Score: 1, Offtopic) by kanweg on Saturday September 09 2017, @08:11PM
Just sent the author this e-mail:
In your article you wrote:
in fact, a scientist who wants to use a technique developed by another must check that there is no patent before that and royalties to be paid.
That is incorrect.
- The European patent convention states that the scope of protection is determined by national law (Art. 64(1)). So, irrespective of any vice of the EPO, they can’t be blamed for that.
- Typically, citizens can’t infringe and, nor can scientist, because for both groups it goes that they are not working the invention commercially.
Also, anyone is free to improve on another invention. That is actually the whole purpose of the patent system. Making sure that innovations are not kept secret and to make sure that they do get published. Visit espacenet.com and you can see all patent applications (when laid open after 18 months) from many countries and even old ones. There is even automatic translation in different languages, all free of charge.
Yours sincerely,
Bert
(Patent attorney)