An intergovernmental conference of the members of the European Patent Convention convened by the French government to review the European patent system focused on the twin objectives of reducing the costs of European Patents and harmonizing patent litigation throughout Europe. To these ends, working groups have been set up to consider practical ways to achieve the following objectives:

The Conference also called upon the EPO to amend its procedures so that the average time taken to secure grant of a European patent would be reduced to three years, to examine whether a grace period for filing applications after publication by the inventor should be introduced into the European Patent Convention and to prepare a revised text of the European Patent Convention that would clarify the law relating to patentability of computer software.

Finally the Conference agreed that the results of the endeavors that it had set in motion should be reviewed by a further conference in 2000 with a view to adopting appropriate revision of the European Patent Convention before January 1, 2001.