Speech by Mirek Topolánek at European Patent Forum
It is an honour for me to welcome you to the European Patent Forum here in Prague. Intellectual property protection goes hand in hand with progress in science and innovation, which is not only one of the major Presidency priorities, but also an important personal priority of mine. After all, investing in scientific research and new technologies is the best way to increase global competitiveness and avert future crises. I think that we all can agree on this.
Efficient and at the same time reasonable protection of intellectual property is a necessary pre-requisite underpinning technological development. The end of plagiarism, when inventors and discoverers had no rights and no hope to reap the fruit of their work and intellect, marks also the beginning of the industrial revolution. On the other hand, protection must not be excessive and over-scrupulous to an extent that would hamper the sharing of knowledge and, consequently, further scientific and innovative developments. To put it bluntly, patents should protect Stephenson’s steam engine, but not the screwdriver he assembled it with.
Therefore we have to strive for efficient and reasonable patent protection, or, if you will, in the name of development, we must respect the conditions of necessity and sufficiency. Today, unfortunately, we cannot but notice that both conditions are being repeatedly infringed. On the one hand, we are witnessing massive breaches of copyright and patent rights. On the other hand, exaggerated patent protection is granted to technologies and ideas of general use.
European companies suffer heavy losses due to their being unable to enforce fair protection of their intellectual property – and not only on the internal market, but globally as well. Direct losses occur when pirates misuse inventions and trademarks whose development they did not need to invest in. Indirect damage is due to a loss of motivation to give large sums to scientific and technological development.
At the same time, it is obvious that an efficient Europe-wide patent policy is vital, if the internal market is to work well, and still more so if we are to meet the development targets enshrined in the Lisbon Strategy. After all, the project of the European Research Area as such is to a great extent conditional on intellectual property protection. The Community has been striving for over thirty years to ensure good patent protection. However, there is still room for improvement, and so I hope that this forum will help us move forward.
Science, innovation, technology and individualism have been the main comparative advantage of Europe for a thousand years. Our small continent never took the path of extensive development, the path of exploitation of massive natural and human resources or the path of state paternalism and collectivism. And in cases when we did so, under certain circumstances, we never succeed. Our principal resource, our competitive advantage, our guarantee of success has always been knowledge, freedom of research and individual initiative.
The significance of our comparative advantage in the globalised world is by no means diminishing. On the contrary; and if we are not able to protect intellectual property and freedom at home effectively in the European Union, we can hardly expect to have the power and authority to push through our patent policy worldwide. At this point, I would like to emphasise one more time that such protection needs to be both efficient and reasonable. Patent protection should be long-lasting, consistent and detailed enough to enable fair profit, yet it cannot prevent the spreading of technologies and sharing of knowledge. As a matter of fact, the harsher the rules of protection, the lesser the willingness to comply with them.
We have a long way to go. The European Patent Convention has been in effect for thirty years. Of course, we have all long realised that during this time the convention has become outdated and that the global challenges of the new millennium, like the development of the common market, require new development in the area of protection of intellectual property. At least because as a result of the current wording, the companies´ expenses toward an effective patent protection within the EU are much higher than in the US.
So far, the change is prevented by the unwillingness of individual countries to abandon their national patent protection, by language issues or by issues relating to redistribution of revenues. These are all legitimate concerns and it is obvious that without a common consensus it is impossible to push through either the Community Patent or the Single Patent Court. It is a politically and economically sensitive issue and it will take considerable time and good will to come up with solutions.
The Czech Republic accepted this agenda as a part of its Presidency priorities. I am confident that the progress in reaching solutions entitles me to say that we are handing over the relay baton to the Swedish Presidency one step closer to the finish. Thank you for coming to Prague; and I wish you a successful meeting.
Last update: 16.8.2011 15:39
