European Parliament adopts unitary patent rules
On 11 December 2012, the MEPs approved the EU patent package.
EU patent package is composed of three legislations: the regulation that introduces the system of a unitary patent, the rules regarding the translation of European patents and the international agreement creating a unified patent court. The idea of a unitary European patent was already being aired in 1957, while the latest attempt for its realization was put forward in 2004, but sunk by disagreement on language issues. These were apparently problematic also in the current package, as Italy and Spain rejected entering the system of a unitary patent. The unitary patent will be available in English, German and French. Regardless, the MEPs presented the package, that will enter into force on 1 January 2014 or after thirteen contracting states ratify it, as a great success, which will reduce the costs of obtaining patent protection on EU levels up to 80%. This system will be able to compete with the American and Japanese system, where patent protection was cheaper than in the EU.
Source: Press release of the European Parliament, Questions and Answers.
The French government has a new plan for Europe that could help the EU compete with the US tech giants: the digital commons.
The International Association of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), PAC Centre for digital preservation, hosted at the National Library of Poland is holding a series of 10 webinars on basic understanding of digitisation projects.
Communia, a non-governmental organisation that advocates for policies that expand the public domain and increase access to and reuse of culture and knowledge, issued twenty new copyright policy recommendations for the next decade.
The DSM Directive entered into force in June 2019 and the deadline for implementation expired on 7 June 2021. On 23 June 2021, the Commission launched multiple infringement procedures and sent letters of formal notice to Slovenia and 22 other Member States that had failed to notify it of the full transposition of the Directive. Slovenia remains among the 14 Member States against which the Commission is continuing the infringement procedure. On 19 May 2022, the Commission sent reasoned opinions to Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, France, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden.