Brussels, 13/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, Jonathan Todd, spokesperson for the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Fritz Bolkestein, declared that the European Commission was opposed to the creation of a multiple jurisdiction for dealing with litigation over the Community patent. He was speaking on the eve of the debate of the "competitiveness" council (see EUROPE 8 November p 10). Mr Todd believed that de-centralisation of the litigation proceedings in several courts throughout Member States would increase costs of the patent. This would fall on top of the fact that the price will already be twice as much as that proposed by the Commission if the compromises envisaged by the Council on languanges and funding for the patent ate included. "We are behind" in the adoption of the decision, which was initially planned for the end of 2001 then postponed till the end of 2002, the Commissioner pointed out. "It is difficult to envisage an agreement at this stage, particularly because of the inflexibility of the big Member States, Mr Todd pointed out.