Minister for Trade honoured by inventor organisations
Minister for Trade Ewa Björling was honoured with flowers today, Wednesday, by the Swedish Inventors Association, Uppfinnarkollegiet (the Council of Inventors) and Svenska Uppfinnarakademin (the Swedish Academy of Inventors).
Photographer: Boris Vasic/MFA
Representatives of the three organisations wanted to show their appreciation for the breakthrough on the EU patent agreed by the EU Member States at the Competitiveness Council on 4 December.
The Competitiveness Council, of which Dr Björling is President-in-Office, unanimously agreed on a general approach for the EU patent regulation and on Council conclusions on a single European Patent Court. This was a political breakthrough in the negotiations, which have been ongoing for a long time, and represents a significant step towards a final agreement. The next step will be for the European Parliament to consider the proposal.
"The work you have put in and this progress mean a very great deal to us inventors. I have 55-60 patents in various countries and the depressing thing has been that in the United States you can apply for a single patent that is valid in all of the states, but in Europe you have to apply for a patent in every country, at great cost. So this is fantastic progress," says Magnus Lindmark, Chairman of Svenska Uppfinnarakademin.
Mats Olsson, Chairman of Infrafone AB, immediately agrees and shows us a folder full of applications.
"This is just one of many folders. I have spent thousands of hours on administration to do with patent applications in the EU and it has cost me millions. I have applied for many patents for different inventions I have come up with over the years, and sometimes nothing comes of the invention but you don't know that before a later stage, by which point you've already put considerable funds into applying for a patent. So if it becomes easier to manage, if fewer languages are needed and if a single application, valid in all of the Member States, is needed it will make an enormous difference to us and be much cheaper," he says.
All the inventors agree that this will lead to greater innovation and that Swedish industry will be better placed to compete on the global market, particularly given that Sweden was ranked top in the world on the Innovation Capacity Index 2009.
