Commission proposes Directive on the protection of technical inventions
The European Commission has put forward a proposal for a Directive approximating the legal arrangements for the protection of technical inventions by utility model. At present inventions are protected by utility model at national level only. However, major differences between national arrangements make it difficult, in practice, to enforce this property right across borders. The Commission's proposal, put forward by Mario Monti, Commissioner for the Single Market, aims to ensure the protection of technical inventions throughout the EU for a period of ten years. Protection would cover new products and processes, to the exclusion of, among other things, biological material and chemical substances. "At a time of rapid growth in innovative activity, characterized as it is by a trend towards small technological advances and be a shortening of product life cycles and time to market, the need has arisen for national laws protecting this type of invention to be harmonized in order to simulate innovation and ensure the smooth functioning of the Single Market", commented Mr. Monti.