Patents standards must be established, says Cefic
15 Jan 2000
The European Chemical Industry Council. CEFIC, has called for urgent changes in the way that patents are granted. These are needed to protect the innovations that form the chemical industry's lifeblood, it argues.
Speaking at a conference at the World Intellectual Property Organisation's Geneva headquarters, CEFIC chairman Jurgen Dormann argued that the lack of uniform international patent laws effectively forms trade barriers for the chemical industry. The industry relies heavily on a constant stream of innovations in technology, catalysts and products, and lack of patent protection removes the vital competitive advantage that new technology brings.
The problem is particularly acute in biotechnology, where there are still no regulations in the European Union over which innovations can be patented and which cannot. While European companies flounder in this uncertainty, Japanese and American firms take advantage of their systems to corner the market in industrially-exploitable genes. There are even problems within the EU, where different laws in each country can deprive firms of patent cover for certain products, particularly drugs.
