Bringing different procedures and legislation into line

Resolution of the Executive Committee, Rome, Italy, 2-7 May 1960

“Bringing different procedures and legislation into line”

FICPI, the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys, broadly representative of the free profession throughout the world, assembled at its Executive Committee held in Rome, Italy, May 1960, ratified the following Resolution passed at its Rome Congress, from 2 to 7 May 1960:

Considering that a patent or other patent right is a legal document necessarily granted by a political authority;

Considering that, consequently, it is difficult to imagine a patent common to several countries without a supra-national authority of a political and juridical nature, with one sole law regarding patent rights;

Considering that the co-existence of a patent common to several countries and of individual national patents could only result in complicating the situation juridically;

Considering that, in the patent rights field, it is advisable to be very careful when altering the existing juridical situation, though that does not mean economic evolution should not
be followed up;

Considering that the only step at present possible within the scope of international agreements of a purely economic nature is the institution of a common filing and delivery
system;

Considering that such a system could never come about without the different legislations fist being brought into line;

Passed the resolution:

That any proposal as to patent rights being common to several countries should be deferred until the legislations of the countries concerned have been brought into line;

That when the latter step has been accomplished, priority should be given to studying the institution of a common filing within a common procedure, the creation of a common
patent, with or without maintenance of national patents, being adjourned for as long as the agreements linking the countries in question are of a solely economic nature, without
supranational political and juridical authority;

That the first steps in bringing legislations into line should concern the duration of patents, the conception of prior art and patentability, and the obligation to work; 

Reaffirms the desire of the Federation to collaborate with national and international public authorities with a view to reaching practical, simple, legal, constructive solutions. 

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