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INTERNATIONAL AND EUROPEAN COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

In the year under review, international cooperation was influenced by two events: Hungary’s accession to the European Patent Convention on 1 January 2003 and the signature of the treaty, on 16 April 2003, on accession to the European Union. The latter entailed participation, as active observers, in the work of institutions and working parties of the EU.

CLOSE COOPERATION WITH THE EUROPEAN PATENT ORGANISATION

While in 2002 the representatives of the HPO attended the meetings of the Administrative Council and working parties of the European Patent Organisation as observers, last year they could participate in the work of these fora as full members having also the right to vote.

The HPO took part in the activity of the various committees of the European Patent Organisation. In particular, our active work in the Committee on Patent Law, the Budget and Finance Committee, the Working Party preparing agreements on the establishment of a uniform European patent litigation system and the Working Party on Technical Information can be mentioned.

Deriving from our membership of the European Patent Convention, the HPO has several joint programmes with the EPO. The ultimate aim of this cooperation is to promote full integration of the Hungarian patent system into the European one and to create the still missing conditions thereof. In this spirit, a three-year bilateral cooperation agreement was concluded in 2003 between the EPO and the HPO, covering, among others, the procurement of technical equipment, exchange of patent documents, professional training and information technology-related missions to Hungary.

The intense relations between the EPO and the HPO are also characterised by the fact that the HPO could welcome Ingo Kober, president of the EPO, as speaker at the conference entitled “Hungary in the European patent system”. Curt Edjfäll, vice-president of the EPO and Roland Grossenbacher, chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation also paid a visit to the HPO.

PARTICIPATION IN THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY WORK OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

The latest Progress Report of the European Commission gave again a favourable evaluation of the preparedness of Hungary, and within this of the HPO, in the field of the protection of intellectual property. The HPO gave its comments on the draft of the industrial property-related text of the Accession Treaty and on the Hungarian translation thereof. The representatives of the HPO participated in consultations organised by the European Commission and after the signature of the Accession Treaty they joined the work, in an observer capacity, of the European Council’s Working Party on Intellectual Property.

The intensive cooperation, commenced between the HPO and the European Union’s “Trademark and Design Office” (Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market, OHIM) in the spring of 2000 on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding, continued in 2003, too. The representatives of the HPO took part in the liaison meetings held also for the offices of candidate countries both in trademark and design issues.

At the invitation of the president of the HPO, it was for the first time that Wubbo de Boer, president of OHIM visited the HPO in the spring of 2003.

COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION AND THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION

Out of the events of international cooperation within the framework of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the 39th series of meetings of the Assemblies of WIPO was the most significant. Hungary continues to be a member of the Coordination Committee and it retained its position in the Program and Budget Committee. The president of the HPO was elected chairman of the Assembly of the Madrid Union Concerning the International Registration of Marks and the vice-president for legal affairs will hold office as vice chairman of the Executive Committee of the Berne Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

In the interest of a more effective representation of Hungary in WIPO and in the World Trade Organization (WTO), a representative of the HPO began working at the Permanent Mission of Hungary to the WTO in a diplomatic post. By means of this measure, participation in all meetings of both organizations, more direct information on their activities and a more effective representation of the Government’s professional policy have become possible.

PROFITABLE BILATERAL RELATIONS

In March 2003, the French-Hungarian mixed committee held its meeting in Paris. In June, a presidential meeting took place in the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland. In October, a delegation of the State Intellectual Property Office of China visited the HPO. At the end of the year, the president of the HPO paid a professional visit to the State Agency on Industrial Property Protection of the Republic of Moldova.

Bilateral and regional cooperation continued in 2003. The president of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office paid a visit to the HPO that further deepened the well-established professional relations between the two offices. The Director General of the Swedish Patent and Registration Office was also a guest of the HPO. In August, a meeting of the presidents of the Hungarian and Estonian offices took place in Hungary. There were several meetings with the Gábor Varga, director general of the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks. The Hungarian-Romanian cooperation at the level of experts also continued.

In 2003, the presidents of the industrial property offices of the “Visegrad countries” held their annual meeting in Bratislava. On that occasion, they discussed new tasks and challenges arising from the forthcoming accession to the European Union, as well as timely issues of cooperation at the main international fora.

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