Publié le 30/11/2008
The implementation of the directive 98/44 EC (patents on inventions) in Belgian national law
Belgium transposed lately the directive 98/44 EC with the Act of 28th April 2005 modifying the Act of 28th March 1984 on Patents on Inventions . This has been the result of a long parliamentary debate and an attempt to adjust national patent law with the new requirements settled in the biotechnological inventions directive . A first attempt occurred in 1998 but the federal elections of 1999 led to a governmental change with a « rainbow » majority – that is to say a coalition of liberal, socialist and ecologist parties. Under Verhofstad I, the proposal of an act transposing the directive contained several exceptions to the directive regime. But the majority changed in 2003 with a « violet » majority composing the Verhofstad II government– including liberal and socialist parties, i.e. a more laic coalition . After the ECJ’s judgment of 2004, Belgium finally transposed the directive in 2005. The Act added to the 1984 Act two provisions that weren’t in the directive – for the rest, it simply transposed the provisions of the directive.