The Commission published, on 3 April 2007, a communication on enhancing the patent system in Europe. It is intended to "draw operational conclusions" from the Spring 2006 stakeholder consultation and to speed up the work in the Council on the Community patent and jurisdictional arrangements.
The Commission still believes that "a truly competitive and attractive Community patent can be achieved, provided there is political will to do so", and promises to take into account concerns about over-centralised EU jurisdiction for patents.
The EU executive proposes the creation of an integrated EU-wide jurisdictional system for patents, which would combine elements of both the draft European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA) aimed at reducing litigation costs and of specific Community jurisdiction for patent litigation based on the EC Treaty.
Member states have shown polarised positions between these two approaches to patent litigation and the Commission believes that consensus could be built on the basis of an integrated approach. "The way forward could be to reflect on the creation of a unified and specialised patent judiciary, with competence for litigation on European patents and future Community patents."
This system would set up a number of tribunals to handle patent disputes across the EU. Their responsibilities would include infringement-related claims whereas the appeals would be heard by one single court, for example the European Court of First Instance. The final judgement on patent jurisdiction would be provided by the European Court of Justice.
