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Archived updates for Thursday, November 10, 2005

EU Judges Endorse Patent Litigation Agreement

According to Paul Hodkinson writing for the November 2, 2005 issue of Legal Week, 24 patents judges from 10 European Union countries have signed onto a campaign to create a unified European patent court. The campaign reportedly calls for the European Commission to ditch its proposal for a centralised court in Luxembourg and implement the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA).

The EPLA is aimed at creating an optional protocol to the European Patent Convention (EPC) which would commit its signatory states to an integrated judicial system, including uniform rules of procedure and a common appeal court. However, the European Commission has reportedly stated that member states no longer have the power to conclude an agreement like the EPLA since the the adoption of the Council regulation on jurisdiction and recognition and enforcement in civil and commercial matters. Therefore, in this case, the European Union's own rules may in fact, be "blocking the further development of the internal European market," as noted by Stefan Luginbuehl in the Winter 2003 issue of "European Affairs."
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