§ Mr. Batisteasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many small and medium sized enterprises based in Britain have expressed an interest in participating in the European Community's BRITE programme.
§ Mr. ButcherOf 2,634 expressions of interest received by the European Commission under the BRITE programme, 764 are from the United Kingdom and of these 398 are from industry. No detailed analysis has been made of these expressions of interest by size of company.
§ Mr. Batisteasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what preferential treatment will be given to enterprises participating in the European Community's BRITE programme in terms of the licensing of patents and know-how as compared with enterprisese which do not participate.
§ Mr. ButcherThe principles governing the basic rights and obligations of BRITE programme contractors have been drafted, but will not be finalised until a decision has been taken on the programme by the Council of Ministers. It is expected that contracts will stipulate that information and know-how generated by contractors under the BRITE programme shall be owned by the contractor generating the information or employing the inventor. Such information will be made available first to other contractors involved in the same project and then to contractors working on other projects within the framework of the BRITE programme. Similar conditions would apply to patents generated in the context of BRITE contracts.