At its meeting on 1 March 2007, the Industrial Property Section of the Intellectual Property Council entrusted an ad hoc working group with the task of examining the Government bill amending the law of 28 March 1984 on patents. This Government Bill’s purpose is to adapt Belgian patent law to bring it into line with the Patent Law Treaty (PLT) and the new European Patent Convention (EPC 2000), which entered into force on 13 December 2007. The Bill also introduces various amendments to the law to allow, among other things, the electronic filing and management of patent applications and patents.
Ms Brigitte Dauwe and Joëlle Van Malderen, as well as Fernand de Visscher, Georges Leherte, Francis Leyder, Claude Quintelier and Thierry Debled are members of this working group chaired by Mrs Mireille Buydens.
The working group was set up pursuant to Article 6, §2 of the Royal Decree of 5 July 2004, 2004 establishing the Intellectual Property Council. In accordance with Article 8 of the aforementioned Royal Decree, the Intellectual Property Office acts as secretariat of the working group.
The working group, which met 23 times between May 2007 and March 2009, assessed the aforementioned Bill, article by article. On 23 April 2009, a final report of the proceedings, along with the Bill and its explanatory memorandum, was submitted for opinion and approval to the “Industrial Property” Section of the Intellectual Property Council. The report and its annexes, which form an integral part of it, were unanimously approved by the "Industrial Property" Section.
- Report of the Working Group’s Chariman (Dutch version (PDF, 43.86 KB) – French version (PDF, 43 KB)) on the work of the Working Group tasked with assessing the Government Bill implementing the Patent Law Treaty and the Act revising the Convention on the Grant of European Patents, and amending various provisions relating to patents.
- Annex 1 (PDF, 217.88 KB), bilingual version : Government bill implementing the Patent Law Treaty and the Act revising the Convention on the Grant of European Patents, and amending various provisions relating to patents.
- Annex 2 (PDF, 396.23 KB), bilingual version : Explanatory memorandum and comments on the articles.
- Annex 3 (PDF, 202.81 KB), bilingual version : Coordinated text of the law of 28 March 1984 on Patents.
