Dear all,
at our last conference call on 15 September (minutes attached) we discussed the possibility to ask for a Conference of Ministers.
Please come back to us with your feedback until the end of September (or if possible earlier)!
We want to start a petition to ask for a Conference of the Ministers of the EPO in 2022. By doing so we would switch from addressing the technical level (Representatives of the EPO Admin. Council) to addressing the political level (ministers).
We could set up a petition and possibly would then have the option to address ministers in different countries (of our member organisations) separately. We could then as well arrange for meetings to hand over the petiton.
It could as well be a good opportunity to get other organisations involved, since it would be a quite easy way to support our demands.
Article 4a (EPC) foresees a Conference of Ministers every 5 years.
In regard to the timeline we have two options:
1.) Start petition in December
- We could now ask the AC to take decisions at the meeting in December, f.e. in our press release for 13 October. And we could as well launch a petition to support our opposition of the melon patent where we communicate as well our demands.
- In case the AC does not take any decisions in December, we would still have a plan on how to hold up the pressure and only then ask for a Conference of Ministers.
- have the petition running from December to March (next AC meeting).
2.) Start petition in October
- We could concentrate our efforts until the end of the year and really focus on achieving a result.
- National patent laws have to be amended anyways until the end of the year in regard to the Unitary Patent Court. So ministers are aware of the issue at the moment and this could be a good opportunity. In Austria, for example, a petition on European level would as well support the current national efforts for a change of law.
- We could start the petition after the AC meeting on 13 October and send out a separate press release.
- have the petition running from end October until December (AC meeting).
In the conference call the tendency was rather towards starting the petition in October.
Please come back to us with your feedback!
- Do you think asking for a Conference would be a good option?
- Which would be the better timeline?
- Could your organisation support the petition, for example via addressing your national minister directly / setting up a national petition?
Please come back to us if you have further questions!
Best,
Johanna
Mag. Johanna ECKHARDT
Project Coordination
Tel. +43 680 21 26 343
NO PATENTS ON SEEDS!
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