EUREKA NEWS

EUREKA values IP for promoting innovation, but welcomes the need for reform

Luuk Borg at EUREKA, the European research platform, comments on the European Commission’s plan to modernize IP.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) have been around for hundreds of years. Most of us are not aware of just how much they touch our daily lives, from the food we eat to the new technologies we increasingly depend upon. 

From its inception, EUREKA has been an advocate of greater simplification and flexibility of national and European rules in the area of research and innovation – and this is no more the case than with IPR where, especially with the speed at which we are witnessing technological change these last few years, the current complex mix of EU and national rules is in drastic need of modernization. That is why we have welcomed the European Commission’s move towards a blueprint for IPR, in which it recognizes the value of IP for promoting innovation, but also the need for reform. 

The challenge now is to strike the right balance between support for and promotion of industrial research and innovation so as to reward the sources and to protect their investments – but also to ensure the widest possible dissemination of the products, processes and services that are protected with these same IPR. If it is done properly, this is a great way of attracting financing to R&D and innovation and benefitting socio-economic growth and competitiveness.

EUREKA is an inter-governmental network aiming to promote international, market-oriented research and innovation through the support offered to market-oriented RTDI projects across all technological sectors. Uniting 39 member countries and the European Union as its 40th member, EUREKA has aims to become the leading platform for R&D-performing entrepreneurs in Europe and beyond. EUREKA R&D is industry-led, applied, close-to-market – with tangible results and visible benefits. EUREKA’s successful Eurostars SME joint programme with the European Commission aims at stimulating research-performing SMEs to lead international collaborative R&I projects by easing access to support and funding, developing new products and access to international markets.

The article will soon be published in "The Handbook of European Intellectual Property Management" (2nd edition).