On the motion of the Economic Affairs Committee, the first reading of the Bill on Amendments to the Utility Models Act, the Patents Act, the Principles of Legal Regulation of Industrial Property Act and the State Fees Act (5 SE), initiated by the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union Faction and the Estonian Reform Party Faction, was concluded. The amendments are due to the need to update these Acts and to eliminate the problems which have appeared. The updating involves first of all bringing the Acts into conformity with the new version of the Convention on the Grant of European Patents which entered into force in December 2007, that is, the European Patent Convention 2000. The amendments are also due to the considerable growth of the number of applications for registration of a utility model, that is, an invention susceptible of industrial application in recent years. As another important amendment, a new type of licence, “the licence of right” is introduced in the field of legal protection of industrial property in Estonia. The principle of this type of licence is that the owner of a utility model who does not wish to use his or her invention or is unable to do so due to lack of means or another reason can permit anyone who is interested to use the invention for a certain licence fee. The Bill was sent to the second reading.