asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the reason the European Commission is unwilling to submit a proposal for a directive which would facilitate the ratification of the Community Patent Convention by Ireland by making it a requirement of EC membership; the representations which he has made to the Commission on the matter; and the response which he has received.
Written Answers. - Community Patent Convention.
134.
While I cannot speak authoritatively for the EC Commission, I have no reason to believe that it has any objection, in principle, to the establishment of a Community patent system under an appropriate Community instrument. Indeed, on the contrary, I believe that the Commission would welcome the possibility of establishing a Community patent system in this way, rather than by Convention, since this would bring the matter within the framework of the Rome Treaty.
It has been apparent, however, from an early stage that certain member states have been unable or unwilling to accept the establishment of such a system by way of Community instrument since, in their view, to do so would imply community competence in this area, which is something that the member states concerned are unwilling to concede. This would appear to be the reason why the Commission has not proposed a Treaty basis for the establishment of the system.
Over the years, Irish Ministers at Council meetings and Irish officials at Working Party meetings have repeatedly proposed that the Community patent system be established by an appropriate instrument under Article 235 of the Treaty on the grounds mainly that such a legal basis would overcome the constitutional problems which Ireland has about acceding to the Convention. This position was also explained in detail during the December 1985 Luxembourg Inter-Governmental Conference which was convened to attempt to make provisions under which the Community patent system could be brought into being initially without ratification by Ireland and Denmark. For the reasons I have already mentioned, however, our viewpoint has so far failed to gain general support.