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Unified Patent Court

Revision as of 07:41, 16 September 2011 by Ciaran (talk | contribs) (External links: * [http://www.unitary-patent.eu/ www.Unitary-Patent.eu])

The unitary patent is an EU proposal which involves creating a new, pro-patent court which would deal with patent litigation instead of the national courts. The proposal also involves creating a single patent which would be valid in many EU member states, without translation. This proposal takes over from the Community Patent, which since the Lisbon Treaty is sometimes called the EU Patent.[1][2]

The unitary patent is an attempt at unifying Europe's patent systems, with all the usual dangers.

Background: Community Patent (2000-2010)

The Community Patent was proposed by the European Commission in 2000 as "Rule of the Council" document number 2000/0177 (CNS), COM(2000)412 FR final.

On October 30th 2009, a new proposal was published: Axel Horns' overview.

Relation to the ECJ

According to European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, May 18th 2006, the Community Patent would give the EU Court of Justice authority in interpreting the EPC:

an important feature of the proposed Community patent system is the accession of the Community to the EPC. By this, the convention becomes part of the Community acquis and subject to interpretation by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The ECJ is not bound by the case law developed by the EPO and is free in its interpretation of the provisions of the EPC[3]

Problem of incubating bad case law

By creating a court full of patent lawyers, we know that this court will give a lot of rulings in favour of expanding patent law. This is how software patents came into existence in the USA (via the creation of the CAFC in 1982).

Even if the European Court of Justice would have jurisdiction to review the new court's rulings, we might see the principle of settled expectations causing the European Court of Justice to follow the new court.

Related pages on ESP Wiki

External links

Background

References