Brussels, 10/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the Greek Presidency will present a new compromise on the Community patent to the permanent representatives. The aim is to reach a common political approach on the last outstanding issue after three years of discussion: the relevant jurisdiction for dealing with disputes relating to the ownership of patents. According to the compromise addressed on Monday to the Member States, the Court of Justice will have exclusive right to jurisdiction for court action, infringement procedures or requests for damages. Under the powers attributed by the Treaty of Nice, a specialised Patents Court would be attached to the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg. It would be composed of fifteen judges specialised in patent law, assisted by technical experts.
Decentralised chambers may be created in "two Member States or more" that so wish, on condition that these States are able to provide the means for meeting the norms of the Court of Luxembourg and for paying the operating costs of these Chambers. The jurisdiction of these decentralised courts may cover several member States. The courts would deal with action initiated against a resident of the Member State where they are located. When cases concern residents of several member States, then these cases will come under the competence of the European Court of Justice. The language of proceedings would be that of the State of residence of the defence party, except if the parties and the court agree to use another Community language. Appeals will be dealt with by the Court of First Instance. The Court may "certify" existing specialised courts that operate as decentralised chambers during a transitional three year period after issuance of the first Community patent and pending the appointment of the judges and the setting in place of the decentralised chambers.
Last November, the Council had not managed to define this common approach, with Germany insisting that the competence of its specialised courts should be safeguarded, and Italy saying that all Member States should have such decentralised courts, whereas the United Kingdom insisted on the additional cost engendered by the regional courts. The Commission, for its part, insisted that the Court of Justice should be the only court competent during at least three years, the time to create a coherent case law.
The Greek compromise proposal takes up the agreements sketched out last year on the languages to be used for registration of patents, the role of the national patents offices and the breakdown of receipts. The linguistic regime would be that in force at the European Patents Office in Munich (English, French and German) but, if the request for patents is made in another language, the costs of translation into one of these three languages would be borne according to a pooling system. Once the patent issued, its holder should cover the cost of translating the "claims" (within the patent) into all Community languages, except if the State of residence has renounced using its own language.