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INTERNATIONAL AND EUROPEAN COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION
International cooperation focussed on exercising rights and meeting obligations deriving from Hungary’s membership of the European Patent Convention and the European Union, as well as on international professional cooperation within the framework of the World Intellectual Property Organization. The majority of the HPO’s international activity concerned participation in the work of the European Patent Organisation and the European Union. 63% of the total missions abroad represented trips connected with meetings of the professional bodies of these two organisations. The efficiency of the management of missions is shown by the fact that the costs of 60% of the trips were reimbursed by the receiving organisations.
Exercise of rights as a Contracting State of the European Patent Organisation
The HPO – with the contribution of delegations headed by the president – successfully performed the tasks deriving from rights and obligations involved by membership of the European Patent Convention. In 2006, the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation held four meetings. The Board, set up in the interest of a better preparation of the Administrative Council’s decisions, met six times, the Budget and Finance Committee three times. The experts of the Committee on Patent Law held four meetings. Also four meetings were held with respect to the so-called strategy debate carried on the decentralisation of works.
In the main issues of the strategy debate within the European Patent Organisation an acceptable decision was made at the 2006 June meeting of the Administrative Council. The Administrative Council decided on the establishment of the European Patent Network. It was agreed upon that a consortium – open to all Contracting States – should be set up relating to user support activities. A new project will also be launched for the supplementary national services promoting the use of the European patent system. Hungary is an active partner in these projects. A working party was set up to investigate the questions of the European Quality System. The legal vice-president of the HPO, as a permanent invited member of the Board participates in the work of the group dealing with the future of the patent system. With respect to the renewal of the cooperation between the European Patent Office and national offices, the Administrative Council made a decision at its October meeting. The HPO and the European Patent Office signed a bilateral cooperation programme for 2007.
The legal vice-president of the HPO is a permanent member of the Board in his capacity as chairman of the Committee on Patent Law of the European Patent Organisation.
Tasks deriving from membership of the European Union
The HPO established close cooperation with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market of the European Union (OHIM) and fulfilled the obligations involved by the operation as an EU Member State. Hungary’s representative in the Administrative Board of OHIM is the legal vice-president of the HPO and the alternate representative is the head of the Trademark, Model and Design Department. In 2006, the Administrative Board and the Budget Committee held two meetings each. Liaison meetings were held on three occasions. The so-called Pre-Selection Committee met twice and in September 2006 a workshop took place for the set-up of a decentralised information network between OHIM and national offices. The HPO concluded a cooperation agreement with OHIM, within the framework of which the HPO prepared general information materials about the Community design system, the Community trademark system and issued publications containing frequently asked questions and replies relating the Community protection systems.
From 1 May 2004, Hungary has been represented in the Administrative Council of the Community Plant Variety Office by the technical vice-president of the HPO and by an official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The HPO was represented at the Working Party on Intellectual Property of the Council of the European Union, at the expert committees of the European Commission and at other meetings on 18 occasions. Meetings were held in the following subject matters: Council Working Party meetings on copyright and related rights; expert committee and Council Working Party meetings on wines and spirit drinks as well as on geographical indications for agricultural products and foodstuffs; meeting of industrial property attachés and Council Working Party meeting on designs; Council Working Party meetings concerning the preparation of the diplomatic conference for the adoption of the revised Trademark Law Treaty and WIPO General Assembly in 2006; Concil Working Party meetings on the law of patents.
The HPO’s officials undertook an honouring and significant role in intellectual property-related assistance services in the organisation of the EU TAIEX Office, they took an active part in peer reviews within the framework of the CARDS programme intended for the countries of Western Balkan.
The HPO took an active part in the work of the Interministerial Committee for European Affairs (ICEA), in the operation of the ICEA’s expert group responsible for intellectual property. The expert group held a meeting on 22 February 2006 relating to consultations launched by the European Commision on future of the patent system in Europe. The HPO participated in answering the Commission’s questionnaire and prepared the intellectual property-related parts of the Hungarian position to be represented at the Commission consultations on the future of the internal market.
The HPO contributed, as a member of the ICEA’s enlargement expert group, to the examination of the intellectual property chapters of the Croatian and the Turkish screening, furthermore prepared, as a member of the ICEA’s competition and development expert group, the Hungarian position on the intellectual property-related chapter of the draft of the 2006 December conclusions of the Competitiveness Council.
Cooperation within the framework of the World Intellectual Property Organization
As a result of a four-year preparation and intensive discussions, the Diplomatic Conference for the adoption of the Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks was closed on 26 March 2006. The Singapore Treaty created under the aegis of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was signed by the HPO’s president in Geneva, on 26 September 2006.
Similarly to the previous years, the representatives of the HPO regularly took part in the meetings of the standing committees of WIPO. In 2006, the HPO provided Hungarian participation in the following meetings: series of meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO, meetings of the Program and Budget Committee, meetings of the Standing Committee on Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications, informal meeting of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP), meetings of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC), ordinary and extraordinary meetings of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, meeting of the Working Group on Reform of the PCT, meeting of the Standards and Documentation Working Group of the Standing Committee on Information Technology (SCIT), meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Legal Development of the Madrid System, a committee meeting on the Development Agenda, as well as international negotiations relating to the future of substantive patent law. In issues of industrial property representation and specialised diplomacy the HPO maintained contacts with the representatives of Hungary’s Permanent Mission in Geneva.
Regional and bilateral cooperation
Regional and bilateral intellectual property relations continued in 2006, too. The heads of the industrial property offices of the “Visegrad countries” held their annual meeting in Prague in October. As regards bilateral interoffice meetings, a bilateral design conference was organised in cooperation with the Italian Patent and Trademark Office; the exchange of experience with the State Intellectual Property Office of Croatia aimed at assisting Croatia’s negotiations on accession to the European Union by means of professional advisory service. The HPO was visited by a delegation of the Finnish National Board of Patents and Registration, a delegation of the Austrian Patent Office, a delegation of the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks, the president of the Portuguese National Institute of Industrial Property and the director general of the Spanish Patent and Trade Mark Office. During the visit of the director of the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office, a cooperation agreement on services was signed between the two offices.
International projects
The HPO, together with 24 European national offices, took part in the Office Network programme launched in 2005 and coordinated by the European Commission’s Enterprise Directorate, which set as objective the establishment of an information network of patent offices and the European Commission’s IPR Helpdesk as well as the harmonisation of intellectual property information provided to small and medium-sized enterprises. As a result of the project, the common information website – InnovAccess – created by the national offices of 25 European Member States and by three international organisations – EPO, OHIM and IPR Helpdesk – started on 9 November 2006. The common website contains the most important industrial property information, relating to procedures, fees, contacts and services, published by the national offices and the three participating international organisations, and is regularly updated by the data managers.