Brussels, 29/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 29 July, the European Commission proposed to modify the so-called “Brussels I” regulation, which governs the jurisdiction of courts and mutual recognition of judgments, to bring it into line with the future unified patent jurisdiction, which will take shape once the international agreement on its creation has been ratified by the state parties.
This change the regulation aims to “clarify how its jurisdictional rules will work in the context of the Unified Patent Court, as well as how the rules of the Regulation should be applied in relations between the member states, parties to the Unified Patent Court Agreement and the member states not party to the Agreement”, the European Commission explains in a press release.
This court will have specialised jurisdiction in patent disputes, avoiding multiple litigation cases in up to 28 different courts. This will cut costs and lead to swift decisions on the validity or infringement of patents, the Commission stresses. The international agreement on a unified patent was signed in Brussels on 19 February 2013. Spain opposed it for reasons related to the language regime.
The proposal will need to be agreed by member states and the European Parliament before becoming law. The Commission is also encouraging member states to ratify the unitary patent court agreement as quickly as possible, and to complete accordingly the preparatory work required for the court to become operational, so that the first unitary patents can be granted in the shortest possible time frames. The figures speak volumes. In 2011, 224,000 and 172,000 patents were issued in the United States and in China respectively, compared to just 62,000 in Europe. This gulf can be partly explained by the prohibitive cost and complexity involved by applying for patent protection across the whole of the single market of the EU. (SP/transl.fl)