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On July 23, 2009 I had reported that the European Patent Office (EPO) had concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc Standards Association (IEEE-SA). In this context Mr Wim Van der Eijkof the EPO also had indicated that EPO was in talks with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to conclude similar agreements with them.

Now the Expert Panel for the Review of the European Standardisation System (EXPRESS) entrusted with its task by the EU Commission, 'Enterprise and Industry', has published a final report saying, inter alia,

It has always been difficult for contemporaries to recognise the peculiarities of their own epoch in which they live. Later on, after decades or centuries, it is much easier to analyse and explain things ex post in countless doctoral thesis and other scholar work. Nevertheless, those who here and now get at least some vague idea of what might be a distinguishing feature vis-a-vis history will surely enjoy the benefit of a more appropriate assessment of options and actions.

For example, in the 1960s the world saw the heydays of mechanical engineering, and in particular Germany had a strong reputation for construction and manufacturing of high quality machining tools. The automotive industries were booming, and a linear extrapolation of the near time expectations of those days to longer time scales resulted in utopian dreams of universal mechanical three-dimensional mobility by flying saucers available for everyone expected to become reality soon after the year 2000.

Nothing of that has happened. Instead, other big things are going on.

As it is well known to all stakeholders involved, the patent system in Europe is highly fragmented: On the one hand, there is a system of patents granted or registered by national patent offices throughout Europe. On the other hand, in parallel there has been set up a European Patent Office (EPO) having the power to grant patents for up to 36 Contracting States forming the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg) on the basis of the European Patent Convention (EPC). Court proceedings in nullification and infringement matters concerning patents granted by national Patent Offices are governed both by substantial and procedural laws of the respective nation. However, unfortunately also European patents as granted by EPO disintegrate at the applicant's discretion expressed by a system of designations and national validation procedures into a bundle of national patents governed by national law. According to Article 64 EPC, a European patent confers in each Contracting State in respect of which it is granted the same rights as would be conferred by a national patent granted in that State, and any infringement of a European patent is dealt with by national law. Concerning the patent lifespan after the lapse of the Opposition period, Article 138 EPC states that a European patent may be revoked with effect for a Contracting State only on one or more of the grounds listed in a fixed catalogue of reasons set on EPC level, but all procedural matters are left to national law.

On February 05, 2010, the General Secretariat of the EU Council has published Document 6164/10 titled “Commission communication 'Enhancing the enforcement of intellectual property rights in the internal market' - Revised proposal for a Council Resolution” replacing its predecessor published in Document 5808/10. It has been drawn up by the EU Presidency for discussion at the meeting of the Intellectual Property Attachés on 9 February 2010. As was to be expected, the EU Council is, inter alia, about to