Industrial property: Community patent

The Council agreed on the following common guidelines for the continued work on the Community patent: - a central role is to be played by the European Patent Office in the grant and administration of Community patents. This would require amendment of the European Patent Convention. - National patent offices should have an important role, bearing in mind contacts with local languages. This would include advising potential applicants for Community patents and transmitting them to the European Patent Office and disseminating information. The nature of other activities should be further considered, taking account of the need to guarantee the quality and uniformity of the Community patent. Applicants should be free to have their applications fully processed by the European Patent Office. - costs need to be kept competitive. - as regards languages, the Community patent system should be based on general principles including that of non-discrimination. Possibilities for limiting translation costs should be explored. - a certain percentage of income from annual renewal fees for the Community patent should be distributed among Member States/national patent office. - jurisdictional arrangements for the Community patent should be set up in accordance with the framework of Articles 225a and 229a of the EC Treaty as adopted at Nice.�