Select Committee on European Legislation First
Report
LEGAL PROTECTION OF DESIGNS |
15.1 We have reported on this proposal twice before. On the last occasion we expressed continuing concern about the possible implications of a new Article 16a which had been proposed by the European Parliament. The new Article would require a Court of the Member State, in certain circumstances, to require the provision of information by an accused person on the source and distribution chain of allegedly infringing goods forming the part of any infringement action. In our last Report we noted that the Government was still considering the possible implications of the new Article 16a and we asked the Minister to let us have a further Supplementary Explanatory Memorandum when his deliberations were concluded.
The Minister's response
15.2 The Minister, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science and Technology at the Department of Trade and Industry (Mr Ian Taylor) has now responded in a second Supplementary Explanatory Memorandum dated 10 October, in which he says:
Conclusions
15.3 We have a number of observations. We note that the Minister talks about "empowering" the Courts to demand information; but as we read it, Article 16a does not simply empower the Court, it requires the Court to order a person to provide information unless there are special reasons for not doing so.
15.4 We accept that there is power to adopt an enforcement provision on the lines of Article 16a under Article 100a of the Treaty. But in our last report we also raised doubts whether the proposed article was in accordance with the third limb of Article 3b of the Treaty which is concerned with proportionality. In the absence of a specific comment in the Minister's SEM we assume that he is content. We remain unconvinced, but we do not recommend a debate solely on this narrow point. 32. (17084) 5506/96; see HC 51-xvii (1995-96), paragraph 4 (24 April 1996) and HC 51-xxi (1995-96), paragraph 2 (5 June 1996). Back
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© Parliamentary copyright 1996 | Prepared 12th November 1996 |