In Information Letter N.S. 179, we reported a European Court of Justice decision holding that the provisions of the Italian and United Kingdom patent laws that subjected patents to the possibility of compulsory licensing if the patented invention was not worked within the country were in violation of the Treaty of Rome, insofar as they discriminated against working of the patent in other EU member states. The Italian patent law has now been amended to comply with this decision by Law 146 of February 22, 1994. Under the law, working of a patented invention anywhere within the EU will suffice to preclude the possibility of the grant of a compulsory license for failure to work the invention.

June 1994 Index