In the area of intellectual property, an intense discussion took place on a proposal for a Regulation on compulsory licences for crisis management. At the end of these discussions, a Coreper mandate for a compromise text was approved, paving the way for trialogue negotiations with the European Parliament.

The reform of the supplementary protection certificate (SPC) framework for medicinal products and plant protection products also mobilised the efforts of the Belgian presidency. Particular attention was paid to proposals for unitary SPCs in order to ensure consistency with the reform of the unitary patent and the Unified Patent Jurisdiction.

Two diplomatic conferences were also held in the context of WIPO, leading to the adoption of two international treaties:

The first treaty concerns genetic resources and aims to promote the transparency of the patent system in the context of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.
The second treaty concerns design law and aims to harmonise and simplify procedural provisions in this area at international level.

As far as copyright is concerned, in addition to coordination work between Member States, OPRI organised a conference in Namur on 8 and 9 April 2024 which brought together more than 300 participants, including:

representatives of Member States,
European institutions,
experts and academics,
stakeholders, and
political leaders.

The theme of the conference was ‘Action by the EU and its Member States to ensure fair remuneration for authors, performers and the creative industries for the use of their content on the Internet’.

IPObel and the Belgian Presidency of the European Union