- Email: [email protected]
The netherlands
REGULATIONS
AND COMMUNICATIONS
Belgium Photocopies of documents made available to the public in the reading room of the Belgian Patent Office. Since 27 May 1980 the following charges are applied: 5 FB per page if a visitor does the copying himself IO FB per page if the copies are made by the staff of the Office Complete copies of Belgian patent documents on aperture cards with film negatives: 10 FB per card.
European
Patent
Off ice
Grant of the first European Patents The first European patents, 13 in all, were granted on 9 January 1980. Just over half the patents were in respect of inventions in the mechanical field, the remainder were in the chemical field. The applications for these first European patents were amongst those filed in the first four months following the opening of the Office on 1 June 1978. Furthermore, they were amongst the first European applications to be exammed when substantive examination began in June 1979. The composition of this first batch of European applications is of course fortuitous and it would be clearly premature to draw any conclusions from it. The grant of these first European patents marks the bringing into full operation of the second major stage of the European patent granting process, namely the substantive examination. The third and final stage, the opposition procedure, is now open.
The Netherlands The function of industrial property in relation to the availability and transfert of knowledge Mid 1976 The Netherlands Scientific Council for Government policy published the report “Impact of foreign influences on the Netherlands: Availability of Scientific and Technological knowhow “. Among other things this report deals with the role of patent information as a source of technological information. The Minister of Economic Affairs requested the President of the Patent Office to comment on the 136
report of the Scientific Council, whereupon the President invited representatives of the: - Ministry of Economic Affairs - National Council for Information Policy (NOBIN) - Association of Patent Attorneys - Governmental Industrial Advisory Service (RND) - Industrial Property Study Committee - Netherlands Association for Patent Information (WON) to participate in an advisory committee wherein also representatives of the Patent Office and a member of the Scientific Council would participate. The committee which was chaired by the President of the Patent Office restricted its study to the role of patent information. It submitted in May 1978 its report entitled: “The function of industrial property in relation to the availability and transfer of knowledge as far as patent documents are concerned”. Where it is stated that: Knowledge contained in patent documents is strongly oriented to practical application and it may be used to stimulate the desired technological innovation. Three ways of using patent information are mentioned: the application Tn ones own company of knowledge contained in a patent of a third party, i.e. under a license agrement. the use of technological knowledge described in patent documents in the framework of research and development. recognizing trends in the development of technology based on changes in the patent activity in particular technological fields. Apart from this a patent is of course a legal document which primarily serves to d. obtain an exclusive right which can be exploited. Until now the latter aspect has obtained considerably more attention than the information aspect. The optimal use of knowledge contained in the patent literature is made difficult by obstacles such as: - the fact that it is rather difficult to judge the value of the knowledge published in a patent - patent documents are difficult to read because of the legalistic phraseology - the classification system used by the Patent Office is not a suitable tool for getting access to the technical information contained in patent documents. To overcome these obstacles the assistance of specialists will often be indispensable. It is proposed to subsidize this assistance where needed and to take measures to remove the obstacles at least in those fields of technology which are of particular national importance. It is stated that the fact that one owns one or more
World Patent Information
2 (1980) No. 3
Regulations
and Communications
REGULATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS patents makes it more likely that one can play an active role in the transfer of knowledge. Cross licensing is often much easier than buying a license. The role the Dutch Patent Office will be able to play in the assessment of trends in technology is rather limited for the moment. In relation to the participation in the technology transfer the committee also proposes to stimulate the filing of patents e.g. by means of publicity, technical assistance and subsidies. The following recommendations were formulated: - In most cases the Dutch small and medium sized companies lack the know-how to evaluate new developments, which for instance are reported in the patent literature. The Government should improve facilities to consult specialists in research, patents, licensing, marketing and information matters. - Patent literature is one of the important sources of
-
-
practical technical knowledge, although this source is not always easily accessible. To improve the accessibility, government should stimulate the input of technological information contained in patent literature in new or already existing computerized information systems. Since the technical content of a patent document is indicated by means of classification symbols, the retrieval of technological knowledge contained in patent literature is simplified considerably. The Government should promote that a classified collection of Dutch and foreign patent documents be made available to the public. The usefulness of patent literature as a source of technical information is reduced by the circumstance that the language used in patent documents is almost incomprehensible for a non-patent specialist and by the fact that the classification system used by the Patent Office has not been devised to retrieve information, but for the only purpose of enabling a patent office to carry out novelty searches. Activities aiming at increasing the value of the Dutch patent documents as a source of information at the earliest possible stage, that is as soon as they are laid open to public inspection, for instance by providing abstracts or by regularly publishing reviews or by applying a more elaborate classification system, will necessitate an expensive analysis of the patent literature. It will be impossible to start such an activity covering the whole field of technology. The Government should in consultation with the Dutch industry decide in which area such an activity should start and make a choice for a trial project.
World Patent Information
- A well chosen
title, characterizing the subject of a patent document is a very useful tool for a first se!ection of potentially interesting documents. The Government should promote that Dutch patent documents more than is the case now, are provided with a title which concisely and precisely characterises the technical content. - New scientific and technological developments expected to become of importance for government and society have to be recognised at an early stage. Especially in those fields of technology which are particularly important for the Netherlands, the Government should stimulate a thorough analysis of information contained in published national and foreign patent documents in order to ensure that new developments are recognized at an early stage. - In The Netherlands many of those being active in development work are not sufficiently patentconcious. They neither think of filing a patent application nor do they use patent literature as a source of information. The Government should stimulate that compulsory courses on industrial property are incorporated in the study program of technical highschools, technical universities and the natural science faculties of universities. The courses should be practically oriented and they should emphasize primarily the economic and information values of patents and not so much go into the details of industrial property legislation. Apart from this, government should stimulate post-graduates to get some insight in industrial property. - For the Dutch industry the costs involved in building an adequate patent portfolio are considerable. The Government should stimulate measures to decrease the expenditure needed to obtain national and international patent protection by offering appropriate subsidizing facilities. - It is often necessary for a firm to defend its technological know-how against exploitation by third parties and to prevent that third parties obtain industrial property rights which might hinder exploitation by the originator. The Government should stimulate the acceptance of a policy according to which at least a patent application is filed for all valuable patentable technical know-hdw which is due to become public. Until now practically none of these recommendations have been implemented. A start has been made with an investigation in the field of membrane separation processes to see whether patent documents can be used as a basis for recognizing trends in the technological J W. Plevier’ development.
2 (1980) No. 3 Regulations and Communications
137
AND COMMUNICATIONS
Belgium Photocopies of documents made available to the public in the reading room of the Belgian Patent Office. Since 27 May 1980 the following charges are applied: 5 FB per page if a visitor does the copying himself IO FB per page if the copies are made by the staff of the Office Complete copies of Belgian patent documents on aperture cards with film negatives: 10 FB per card.
European
Patent
Off ice
Grant of the first European Patents The first European patents, 13 in all, were granted on 9 January 1980. Just over half the patents were in respect of inventions in the mechanical field, the remainder were in the chemical field. The applications for these first European patents were amongst those filed in the first four months following the opening of the Office on 1 June 1978. Furthermore, they were amongst the first European applications to be exammed when substantive examination began in June 1979. The composition of this first batch of European applications is of course fortuitous and it would be clearly premature to draw any conclusions from it. The grant of these first European patents marks the bringing into full operation of the second major stage of the European patent granting process, namely the substantive examination. The third and final stage, the opposition procedure, is now open.
The Netherlands The function of industrial property in relation to the availability and transfert of knowledge Mid 1976 The Netherlands Scientific Council for Government policy published the report “Impact of foreign influences on the Netherlands: Availability of Scientific and Technological knowhow “. Among other things this report deals with the role of patent information as a source of technological information. The Minister of Economic Affairs requested the President of the Patent Office to comment on the 136
report of the Scientific Council, whereupon the President invited representatives of the: - Ministry of Economic Affairs - National Council for Information Policy (NOBIN) - Association of Patent Attorneys - Governmental Industrial Advisory Service (RND) - Industrial Property Study Committee - Netherlands Association for Patent Information (WON) to participate in an advisory committee wherein also representatives of the Patent Office and a member of the Scientific Council would participate. The committee which was chaired by the President of the Patent Office restricted its study to the role of patent information. It submitted in May 1978 its report entitled: “The function of industrial property in relation to the availability and transfer of knowledge as far as patent documents are concerned”. Where it is stated that: Knowledge contained in patent documents is strongly oriented to practical application and it may be used to stimulate the desired technological innovation. Three ways of using patent information are mentioned: the application Tn ones own company of knowledge contained in a patent of a third party, i.e. under a license agrement. the use of technological knowledge described in patent documents in the framework of research and development. recognizing trends in the development of technology based on changes in the patent activity in particular technological fields. Apart from this a patent is of course a legal document which primarily serves to d. obtain an exclusive right which can be exploited. Until now the latter aspect has obtained considerably more attention than the information aspect. The optimal use of knowledge contained in the patent literature is made difficult by obstacles such as: - the fact that it is rather difficult to judge the value of the knowledge published in a patent - patent documents are difficult to read because of the legalistic phraseology - the classification system used by the Patent Office is not a suitable tool for getting access to the technical information contained in patent documents. To overcome these obstacles the assistance of specialists will often be indispensable. It is proposed to subsidize this assistance where needed and to take measures to remove the obstacles at least in those fields of technology which are of particular national importance. It is stated that the fact that one owns one or more
World Patent Information
2 (1980) No. 3
Regulations
and Communications
REGULATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS patents makes it more likely that one can play an active role in the transfer of knowledge. Cross licensing is often much easier than buying a license. The role the Dutch Patent Office will be able to play in the assessment of trends in technology is rather limited for the moment. In relation to the participation in the technology transfer the committee also proposes to stimulate the filing of patents e.g. by means of publicity, technical assistance and subsidies. The following recommendations were formulated: - In most cases the Dutch small and medium sized companies lack the know-how to evaluate new developments, which for instance are reported in the patent literature. The Government should improve facilities to consult specialists in research, patents, licensing, marketing and information matters. - Patent literature is one of the important sources of
-
-
practical technical knowledge, although this source is not always easily accessible. To improve the accessibility, government should stimulate the input of technological information contained in patent literature in new or already existing computerized information systems. Since the technical content of a patent document is indicated by means of classification symbols, the retrieval of technological knowledge contained in patent literature is simplified considerably. The Government should promote that a classified collection of Dutch and foreign patent documents be made available to the public. The usefulness of patent literature as a source of technical information is reduced by the circumstance that the language used in patent documents is almost incomprehensible for a non-patent specialist and by the fact that the classification system used by the Patent Office has not been devised to retrieve information, but for the only purpose of enabling a patent office to carry out novelty searches. Activities aiming at increasing the value of the Dutch patent documents as a source of information at the earliest possible stage, that is as soon as they are laid open to public inspection, for instance by providing abstracts or by regularly publishing reviews or by applying a more elaborate classification system, will necessitate an expensive analysis of the patent literature. It will be impossible to start such an activity covering the whole field of technology. The Government should in consultation with the Dutch industry decide in which area such an activity should start and make a choice for a trial project.
World Patent Information
- A well chosen
title, characterizing the subject of a patent document is a very useful tool for a first se!ection of potentially interesting documents. The Government should promote that Dutch patent documents more than is the case now, are provided with a title which concisely and precisely characterises the technical content. - New scientific and technological developments expected to become of importance for government and society have to be recognised at an early stage. Especially in those fields of technology which are particularly important for the Netherlands, the Government should stimulate a thorough analysis of information contained in published national and foreign patent documents in order to ensure that new developments are recognized at an early stage. - In The Netherlands many of those being active in development work are not sufficiently patentconcious. They neither think of filing a patent application nor do they use patent literature as a source of information. The Government should stimulate that compulsory courses on industrial property are incorporated in the study program of technical highschools, technical universities and the natural science faculties of universities. The courses should be practically oriented and they should emphasize primarily the economic and information values of patents and not so much go into the details of industrial property legislation. Apart from this, government should stimulate post-graduates to get some insight in industrial property. - For the Dutch industry the costs involved in building an adequate patent portfolio are considerable. The Government should stimulate measures to decrease the expenditure needed to obtain national and international patent protection by offering appropriate subsidizing facilities. - It is often necessary for a firm to defend its technological know-how against exploitation by third parties and to prevent that third parties obtain industrial property rights which might hinder exploitation by the originator. The Government should stimulate the acceptance of a policy according to which at least a patent application is filed for all valuable patentable technical know-hdw which is due to become public. Until now practically none of these recommendations have been implemented. A start has been made with an investigation in the field of membrane separation processes to see whether patent documents can be used as a basis for recognizing trends in the technological J W. Plevier’ development.
2 (1980) No. 3 Regulations and Communications
137