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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 15 Jun 1995

Vol. 454 No. 5

Written Answers. - Patents Protection.

Liam Fitzgerald

Ceist:

15 Mr. L. Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the current status of section 8 (i) (M) of the Science and Technology Act, 1987, in view of the National Science of Technology and Innovation Council Report and the appointment of the Task Force; the amount of money which has been allocated to Forbairt in the current financial year to finance patent programmes; the number of products which have been protected since this Government took office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10322/95]

I assume that the Deputy's question relates to section 8 (3) (m) of the Science and Technology Act, 1987, which states that a specific function of Eolas shall be: "to advise and assist inventors in registering and protecting their inventions."

This, along with the other functions of the former Eolas, was assigned to the new development agency, Forfas, under the Industrial Development Act, 1993. This particular function was subsequently devolved to Forbairt and the Forbairt "inventions programme" addresses this requirement by providing a range of services to inventors, including assessment of the commercial viability and marketability of an idea and advice and assistance with patent applications.

Financial support for this is provided out of the Forbairt annual grant-in-aid. Forbairt are allocating some £300,000 for this activity in 1995. The amount has been increasing progressively over the past five years, from a level of about £90,000 in 1990.

I understand that Forbairt is currently supporting 45 on-going projects, of which 27 have reached the production stage and the remainder are at various stages of technical and — or commercial development. In any one year, Forbairt receive a large number of applications for support under the inventions programme and only a very few of these are found to merit support.

Following a recent review of its role in the inventions area, both in the context of the new agency structures and of the report of the Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council, Forbairt is increasing its involvement with the allocation of extra staff to create a specific intellectual property unit. It is intended that this unit will be in place by the end of this year and I believe that this improved and pro-active service will create a greater awareness of intellectual property issues in general, and the importance of patent protection as part of the general development of innovation and entrepreneurship.
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