IP News

At the March 3rd meeting of the Competitiveness Council in Brussels, the Ministers agreed to a common political approach to creating a Community Patent. The proposal would create a special court, the Community Patent Court (CPC), with exclusive jurisdiction to hear invalidity, infringement and declaratory actions as well as other actions such as claims based on prior use. The litigation of Community Patents would initially take place before a three-judge panel. All appeals would be heard by the Court of First Instance in the European Communities (CFI). Technical experts would be available to assist the judges in handling the case. The EPO would still be responsible for granting the patent, but National Patent Offices would be heavily involved as well. Once the patent is granted, the patentee would have to translate the patent into all 21 languages of the member states. This aspect has upset some members of European industry because translation may add up to 15,000 Euros to the cost of obtaining the patent. Council members propose to establish the Community Patent by 2010. A copy of the Council's proposal can be found at http://ue.eu.int at the press office link.