European Patent Office offers PRECES CD-ROM to subscribers
The European Patent Office has available for subscribers the PRECES CD-ROM, which contains national patent specifications, including images, from eight countries of central and eastern Europe - Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Romania. "The countries of central and eastern Europe have made enormous progress in administering and examination of national patent applications," said the EPO. "They work to a high professional standard and now form important components in the network of global protection." The EPO said that these countries have now signed most of the major treaties on intellectual property (IP) and are poised to join the European Union. As they will also join the EPO in the next few years, they will then be in the mainstream European IP system.