Dear all
short update on the online meeting I had today with German Ministry of Justice (Dr. Pakuscher):
main content:
They say, they try to mobilise other member states. On the meeting of the Patent Law Committee (PLC): It was a promising meeting. It is true that Scandinavian countries, NL and France were reluctant, however it is not clear why. During the online meeting of the PLC there was not many time for discussion. So maybe it just will need some further explanations. Austria was very active.
They expect no decision before the next meeting of the PLC (in one year). They think this time will be needed to achieve agreements. The Admin Council (AC) will wait for the PLC to prepare the decision to be voted on. They think, there will be no additional meeting of the PLC before the normal term.
They are trying to organise an international conference, dealing with our topics probably in June next year. The outcome of this conference will then be used for preparing the decision making in the PLC and AC. There also would be a lot of interest from other Member States to attend the conference.
The topics they would like to discuss at the conference are (very rough planning):
How much room is there for changes within the current patent law (EPC
and EU)?
How to deal with old and new methods of mutagenesis (this would
include Genome Editing)?
Is the disclaimer solution sufficient?
are there problems with the scope of patents (this point may include
the issue of absolute product protection)?
They will suggest a date for another phone conference soon. They will send some information beforehand what they would like to get from us as input (like whom to invite as participants / speakers).
My first short analysis: this basically is a success. We wanted them to move to these kind of discussions. Now the process is started.
However: Till end of next year, the Minister of Justice will be no longer the same person. Therefore, the process might end up with no results. Maybe: It is an international process, so it also might be accomplished with other countries becoming more active next year.
General conclusion: It looks like the Ministry wants to take the lead on the process. There might be several political reasons for this. We can try to follow this path, however we should become depend on it.
My suggestion: let us start the appeal for another moratorium, to keep the process going.
we will have another zoom conference with German organisations tomorrow. we will discuss further and come back to you all.
have a nice evening!
Christoph