Ministry of Economy advises patentees to abstain from protest rallies during election campaign

Not a single proposal for the modification of the legislation in the field has come from the patent-holders in the last year, the Ministry of Economy and Trade said in a communique in response to the announcement made by the patentees on Monday about their intention to resume protests in two weeks, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The Ministry of Economy and Commerce regrets that some associations which claim to represent the interests of the patent-holders and of the small and mid-sized enterprises decide, accidentally or not, to demand modifications of the legislation in the middle of the election campaign, when the legislative body is inactive”, the communique reads. The Ministry recalled that “in the period from February to May 2009, the representatives of patent holders from all the districts of the country together with the ministry elaborated a set of concessive changes to the Law on the Enterprise Patent of 1998, which had suspended trade based on patents”. According to information from the Main Fiscal Inspectorate, as of 1 June 2008, the real number of patent holders in the country was 18,500, and one year later their number was 17,500. From the beginning of the year, the patent holders transferred to the budget 14.7 million lei in taxes, representing 0.57 percent of the total tax revenues in the first five months. At a news conference on Monday, Eugen Roscovanu, the president of the Small Business Association, announced that the small traders would resume street protests unless their rights are respected.