MEPs vote to help inventors
Last week, the European Parliament in Strasbourg voted to adopt, with amendment, the European Commission's proposals that provide an alternative to patents for minor inventions, using a Europe-wide utility model to ensure that the internal market works properly. The objective is to promote business competitiveness, especially that of small and medium-sized enterprises, and to encourage innovation by harmonising at the Community level the effective protection given to technical inventions under national legislation on utility models. Utility models are registered rights, which confer on their owners exclusive protection for technical inventions. These protection rights can be obtained more rapidly and cheaply than patents but the protection they provide is legally less secure.