Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Patents (Amendment) Bill 1999 passed Second Stage in the Dáil in November 2000. Committee Stage has yet to be taken. The primary purpose of the Bill was to give effect to certain provisions of the World Trade Organisation, WTO, agreement on trade related aspects of intellectual property, known as the TRIPs agreement. Since the Bill was initiated, a number of other international developments on intellectual property rights have occurred, some of which impact on the provisions of the earlier Patents Act 1992. The Minister's view is that given the existence of the Patents (Amendment) Bill, it was prudent to take all relevant developments on board in a single Bill. It is proposed to amend the Bill on Committee Stage to include the European Patent Convention, the provisions of the Patent Law Treaty and intellectual properties Acts. I have a note and I will arrange to forward it to the Deputy. All of those issues have occurred since 1999.

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