Brussels, le 27/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - Discussions focusing on the court that will be responsible for managing patent litigation are currently at a dead end, since the heads of states' decision last June to amend a previous compromise reached with the European Parliament. Nonetheless, on Wednesday 25 September, the courts in Luxembourg began their examination of the complaint lodged by Spain and Italy regarding the linguistic regime chosen to apply to the future European patent and strengthened cooperation developed to this effect by the 25 other member states.
At the end of June, the United Kingdom succeeded in ensuring that certain articles in the regulation establishing the patent would be removed, as a means to restrict the access of certain jurisdictional levels (local and regional, for example) to the European Court of Justice, in the event of problems interpreting Community law (see EUROPE 10645). This suggestion, validated by the 27 member states, provoked a lot of anger at the EP, which had already in December 2011 signed and sealed a compromise on the subject with the Council and did not believe the dossier should be reopened (see EUROPE 10520).
This British request constituted one of the factors in the negotiations influencing the choice of city where the future court would be based. Paris would see itself become the window on this issue and the city where this future court would be based, and London and Munich, at the same time, would be responsible for tackling many different areas of litigation. This “deal” hammered out between the three countries was too much for the Parliament to swallow. Bernhard Rapkay (S&D, Germany), rapporteur on this issue, decided to leave the question over the summer and return to it in September and used a number of legal recommendations to support this stance. The problem, however, consisted of the fact that these legal recommendations have not been finalised and the Council and the Parliament have been sending the ball back into each other's court. The point will therefore not be included on the agenda of the final meeting of the JURI committee on 19 September, and will possibly be included on the agenda for the meeting on the 10 and 11 of October next, depending on the progress accomplished in the different legal examinations. According to one source close to this dossier, despite these delays, the atmosphere has been quite relaxed since July and the two parties have shown a willingness to find a “pragmatic” solution that is acceptable to all sides. The Cypriot presidency is therefore hoping to complete the dossier on the single patent (which has dragged on for the past 30 years) by December. (SP/trans.fl)