The reduction of patent costs

Most technology-based companies belonging to the ICC believe, however, the cost of obtaining patents is far too high with much unnecessary and expensive multiplication of examining work being performed by patent offices around the world. The cost of litigating patents is also much too high; even if the cost of obtaining patents were reduced significantly, such companies would still be unhappy with the patent system because in many countries enforcing patents is too expensive and exposes the parties to considerable aggravation; in some countries, patents cannot in practice be enforced at all. The ICC therefore joins with other international organisations interested in intellectual property (such as the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), the Pacific Intellectual Property Association (PIPA) and UNICE, the European employers' Federation) in encouraging national governments to take measures now to reduce the costs of obtaining and litigating patents.

Any cost reduction measures proposed by these organisations must be constitutionally and politically acceptable to national governments particularly if parliamentary approval is required to implement them. Measures will only be politically acceptable if they achieve a fair balance between the patentee being able to obtain and enforce patents world-wide on new technology cheaply, quickly and without aggravation and a third party being able to determine also cheaply, quickly and without aggravation whether it is free to work its own technology.

The ICC suggests the possible measures to reduce world-wide patent obtaining costs.