European Patent Convention

The current system under the European Patent Convention is better.

We have a legal basis in the form of the European Patent Convention.

The European Patent Convention will continue to apply for them.

If we had arrived at a conclusion based on the European Patent Convention in this matter, you would have my full support.

They are only bound by the European Patent Convention.

Changing them in contradiction with the European Patent Convention would, however, simply cause confusion.

The accession to the European Patents Convention will enable this.

At the moment the European Patent Convention draws a clear line between inventions and living material.

This constituted the first revision of the European Patent Convention since its signature in 1973.

He also authored the first edition of a well-known commentary on the European Patent Convention.

The evolution of the Organisation is inherently linked to the European Patent Convention.

The process of renegotiating the European Patent Convention would not require any contribution from this Parliament.

The current rules in the European Patent Convention leave patent examiners very wide decision-making powers.

The legal framework is clear: Article 52 of the European Patent Convention states that software as such cannot be patented.

Software is protected by copyright, and the European Patent Convention precludes the patenting of computer programs.

See Software patents under the European Patent Convention.

This field is not regulated either by national patent legislation or by the European Patent Convention.

We should, therefore, delete computer programs from the provisions of Article 52(2) of the European Patent Convention.

It is open to any member state of the European Union, but not to other parties to the European Patent Convention.

Under the European Patent Convention, any person can file an opposition provided they act promptly after grant of the patent.

The European Patent Convention does not provide any positive guidance on what should be considered an invention for the purposes of patent law.

Concurrently with these negotiations, the London Agreement is being implemented under the European Patent Convention.

Article 52 of the European Patent Convention excludes software as such and states that ideas and theories are not suitable for patents.

That, I think, sounds wise, especially since the European Patent Convention does emphasise that software cannot be patented.

However, as has already been indicated, we are dealing with the European Patent Convention (EPC) here.