Mallien oikeudellinen suoja (keskustelu)
11.12.2007
Madam President, I would like to start, like many other colleagues today, by stressing the importance of intellectual property rights and the protection of design in general. We need these rights if we want to continue to be competitive, dynamic and innovative and develop our societies.
However, we also need to make sure that our markets are functioning in an efficient way. The Commission???s proposal could not be more timely. As many have stressed, we have already waited for 17 years, and we have to wait five more. I think the grace period of five years is already long enough, and it certainly gives the automotive industry time to adjust their industry in a proper way.
This is a good balance between intellectual property rights and the rights of consumers. We have 260 million vehicle owners in Europe, who are waiting to get a ???spare parts and repair??? clause which is well functioning.
This proposal for a directive, and the compromise made by the Committee on Legal Affairs, ensure that all those parts that are attached to the end product when the product is made ??? which are not really traditional spare parts ??? can still have full protection under the design directive.
I am confident that the directive will benefit European consumers. The scaremongering by the automotive industry that this would result in the loss of 50 000 employees from the automotive sector or EUR 2 billion losses to vehicle manufacturers is absolute nonsense. I think that it will bring business opportunities for a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe and create new jobs for Europeans.
It remains to be seen, and we definitely want to see the results in five years and not eight years. I hope this will be the compromise tomorrow. |
|
