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The European Commission is going to hold a public hearing on future EU patent policy on the 12th of July 2006. This public hearing is following a public consultation launched in January 2006 with the aim of collecting stakeholders’ views on the patent system in Europe and of seeking views on what measures could be taken in the near future to improve this system.

The public consultation focused on the structure of the patent system in Europe rather than issues of substantive patent law. The consultation questionnaire covered four major topics: basic principles of the patent system, the proposed Community patent; non-community initiatives such as the London Protocol and the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA) and possible areas for harmonisation at Community level. Some 2000 replies were received and are currently analysed.

The public hearing, held in Brussels, will be based on the preliminary findings of the consultation and on the contribution of 40 selected stakeholders representing the balance of opinion in the written replies. An open debate and a presentation on the value of patents will be organised for the participants (360 are so far registered).

The Commission will prepare a report summarising the outputs of both phases of the consultation which will be published on the EUROPA website. The last step of this patent policy survey will be, for the Commission, to draw the appropriate conclusions and to decide upon operational and legislative consequences.