Patent Portfolio
Chapter 2 of the Euratom Treaty mandates the European Commission to disseminate the knowledge base gained through Community research on a licensing basis. the logically ensuring need to obtain patents first, has been guaranteed through the administration of the Joint Research Centre’s patent portfolio (ca. 1,500 dossiers). A yearly meeting of the European Commission patent engineers ensures that no unnecessary patents are kept in force. the portfolio grows through ca. 20 invention disclosures per year which result in more than one hundred patents applied for (including the national phases of EPC and PCT bundle applications). Commercialisation of these patents is according to the Euratom Treaty and will increasingly be the task of the JRC.
Another source for Commission-financed patent applications was the former programme VALUE II under which European Commission’s support for patent applications was possible in cases where research would otherwise not have been protected (for example because the inventing institutions would not be able to finance the appropriate protection in all relevant markets). This form of support has been discontinued after the end of VALUE II but a small portfolio of ca. 40 active dossiers is kept until the patents applied for are either granted or finally abandoned.
Some of these patents were applied for in the name of the Communities. A licensing strategy will have to be developed with a view to commercialising those patents. the responsibility for commercialisation of patents in the name of contractors or consortia of contractors lies with those entities, in particular once they will have taken over the financing (such as the maintenance fees after the patent has been granted).
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