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Unified Patent Court

Revision as of 08:42, 23 August 2012 by Ciaran (talk | contribs) (moved EU patent and the Unified Patent Court to EU patent and Unified Patent Court: when in doubt over which is better, go with the shorter)

The European Union patent with unitary effect is part of an EU proposal which takes competence for patent cases away from the national courts and transfers it to a new pro-patent court with no independent appeal system for its rulings. The other part of the proposal is the Unified Patent Court. The stated aim is to unify Europe's patent systems, but the substantial outcome is that software patents will be upheld in Europe.

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]

Hidden agenda: empower pro-software-patent judges

By creating a court with patent lawyers as judges, this proposal will lead to a set of rulings in favour of expanding patent law (giving a "maximal" interpretation of the 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