PRESIDENT’S INTRODUCTION

Dear Participant,

Hungary, as the country holding the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, welcomes you in Budapest for a two-day Conference. As the President of the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office, I would like to give you an overview of the importance of these two days for Hungary and also for the stakeholders of intellectual property protection in Europe and beyond.

Our Office was established by the Patents Act of 1895 under the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy and it managed to continue its operation during different regimes, also under the communist era, which was a real achievement at the time. Finally, when Hungary could return to the path of market economy, it quickly adjusted its legal instruments in order to reflect the acquis communautaire. The Republic of Hungary acceded to the European Patent Convention on 1 January 2003 and to the European Union on 1 May 2004; the Presidency of the Council of the EU is being held by the country for the first time in its history. 

Hungarian inventors have contributed enormously to the prosperity and well-being of humanity. We, Hungarians, have added many inventions to the common knowledge of mankind making life easier for people. Ányos Jedlik, a Benedictine monk, created the first device to contain the three main components of practical direct current motors: the stator, rotor and commutator (1827). He preceded his contemporaries in his scientific work by formulating the concept of the dynamo at least six years prior to Siemens, but he did not patent it at that time. Tivadar Puskás had long been occupied with the problem of transmitting the human voice before he built Europe’s first telephone exchange in Paris (1878). Three engineers of the Ganz Company, Otto Bláthy, Miksa Déry and Károly Zipernowsky achieved a breakthrough in the cheap transmission of electricity, when jointly developed the transformer, one of the most important electronic inventions of the time (1885). It was also Bláthy who designed the kilowatt hour meter (1889). Physicist Loránd Eötvös created the so-called Eötvös Rule, which states that there is a relation between the surface tension of pure liquids and temperature changes. Eötvös established the identity of gravitational and inert masses, on which Einstein based his theory of relativity. He also devised the Eötvös Pendulum, a gravitational torsion balance (1888). József Galamb joined the Ford Motor Company in 1905 and soon became the chief designer. As such he designed the famous model-T (1907), the first affordable automobile, which opened travel to the middle-class in America. He also created the assembly line, therefore, he is deemed to be the inventor of industrial mass production. It was Imre Bródy, engineer at Tungsram Co., who first filled lamps with krypton gas in place of argon, inventing the krypton electric bulb (1930). As the new gas was expensive he developed a process with his colleagues to obtain krypton from air. Humanity can thank Nobel Prize laureate, inventor-scientist Albert Szent-Györgyi for the isolation of vitamin C and for the discovery of the components and reactions of the citric acid cycle (1930s). The auto-exposure still camera (Kodak Super Six-20) was contrived by József Mihályi (1938), who worked as engineer for Kodak. This model proved to be a historic milestone in the development of photo technology. The invention of holography is credited to electrical engineer Dénes Gábor (1947), who was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Furthering the research and work of József Dallos, who made the manufacture of contact lenses which fit the shape of the living eye possible, István Győrffy invented the soft contact lenses (1959). Károly Simonyi, working as chief software architect for Microsoft, oversaw the development of Microsoft’s two flagships, Word (1983) and Excel, which have become integral parts of Microsoft’s Office suite of applications. Simonyi had the chance to be the fifth space tourist in the world in April 2007. Working for NASA, Ferenc Pavlics was one of two co-developers of Apollo Lunar Rover and received a NASA award for the success of the Apollo program (1971). He also participated in the development of the Mars Rover Sojourner in the Mars Exploration Rover Mission (1996). Inventors Gábor Domokos and Péter Várkonyi presented humanity with a new, unique geometrical body, the “Gömböc”, which is the first known homogenous object with one stable and one unstable equilibrium point (2007). Finally, but far from presenting an exhaustive list, the Leonar3Do virtual reality kit (2010) is the contrivance of a young inventor, called Dániel Rátai, which, revolutionising computer interaction, makes virtual reality palpable. It might be utilised in inter alia education, healthcare and the entertaining industry.

Today European society has to face many pressing challenges, such as climate change, energy and resource efficiency, health and demographic change. It is a common understanding in the European Union that a well-functioning IPR protection system is the engine of innovation. Therefore, one of the flagship initiatives of the European Union’s EU2020 strategy is the establishment of an “innovation union” aiming to re-focus R&D and innovation policy. As part of these initiatives, the EU wishes to improve the framework conditions for businesses to innovate including the creation of the single EU or unitary patent and the establishment of a specialised patent court. The EU also aims to modernise the legal framework of copyright, trade marks and enforcement.

Nevertheless, numerous examples warn us against the vulnerability of intellectual property. We should bear in mind how invaluable intellectual property is for the social, economic and cultural well-being of mankind at a time when we are facing a rapidly growing number of acts of counterfeiting and piracy.

The first half-day of the Conference is devoted, therefore, to the topic of the fight against counterfeiting and piracy as well as to a better enforcement of industrial property rights and copyright. This is an excellent occasion to draw the attention of the EU stakeholders and the wider world to the ever-growing dangers of the worldwide phenomena of counterfeiting and piracy, and the sustained efforts taken against them.

The second day provides an opportunity for exchanging views and ideas on the organisation of work of IP offices driven by the pressing need to meet the challenges of the increasing number and complexity of applications triggered by stiff economic competition in today’s world. We will explore the possibilities of work sharing on a global scale and assess how plans for legal developments in the EU can influence the room for manoeuvre of applicants, stakeholders, regional and national offices. There are already successful steps in this direction, such as the basis instrument of international work sharing, the Patent Cooperation Treaty that is currently reviewed in accordance with the WIPO PCT roadmap. Let me also note with pride here that the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office is engaged in the so-called Patent Prosecution Highway project, which promotes expeditious, inexpensive and high-quality patent protection throughout the world. It allows applicants to obtain patent protection faster and more efficiently, while benefiting from the work done by other offices taking part in the initiative and avoiding the perils of duplication. Our Office is actively involved in the work of the European Patent Network, as well, which is aimed at increasing the efficiency of the European patent system.

The objective of the Conference is to provide an insight into the challenges and opportunities lying ahead of the stakeholders in the European and global IPR systems.

Our Conference will be held just before the European Inventor Award prize-giving ceremony taking place in Budapest on 19 May. It is indeed a great honour for us that our country is the host of this year’s ceremony and that the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office is in the position to support the organisers, the European Patent Office and the European Commission, in their efforts aimed at paying tribute to those inventors who have achieved outstanding and enduring success with their inventions in Europe.

Dear Participant, you are warmly welcome in the heart of the Hungarian capital to make our IP Conference a real success. We look forward to seeing you in Budapest on 17-18 May.

Dr. Miklós Bendzsel
President