On 25 November 2020, the European Commission
("Commission") published its Action Plan
on Intellectual Property1 ("Action
Plan") which proposes to implement specific
intellectual property ("IP") policies
with the particular objective of modernising the European Union
("EU") framework in this field and
helping small and medium enterprises
("SMEs") benefit from their inventions
and creations, especially in times of health and economic
crisis.
This Action Plan is an ambitious policy document with multiple
proposals for actions. Our developments below focus on selected
topics we would like to draw your attention to.
"Democratising" IP
The Commission points out that the COVID-19 crisis highlighted
the populations' and governments' reliance on innovations,
specifically in the health sector, and the importance of easy and
fast access to such innovations in situations of emergency.
