Community Patent draws near

The Competitiveness Council of Ministers met in Brussels on Tuesday 4 March 2003 and reached agreement on a "common political approach" covering the proposed Community Patent. This approach outlines the main features of the new system. In particular:

• a centralised Community Patents Court ("CPC"), with its seat in Luxembourg, will rule on disputes in the first instance, with appeal to the Court of First Instance of the European Communities. The CPC is to be established by 2010, with national courts having jurisdiction in the meantime;
• the applicant must present the application document in one of the three official European Patent Office (EPO) languages (as under the European Patent Convention). Where the application is in a non-EPO language and the applicant provides a translation into an EPO language, the cost will be borne by the system. Upon the grant of the patent, the applicant must file a translation of the claims into all official Community Languages (at its own cost), unless a Member State renounces the translation into its official language.
• The EPO alone will be responsible for examination of applications and the grant of Community Patents.

Whilst this is certainly a significant step forward, a number of important steps must follow. The Council will now have to agree and then adopt the text of the Regulation on the Community Patent. No date has yet been set for the next discussion. The Commission will present proposals for Council Decisions to confer jurisdiction on the European Court of Justice to rule on issues arising from the Community Patent, and to establish the CPC. The Council will also convene a diplomatic conference to revise the Munich Convention to allow the European Patent Office in Munich to issue the Community Patent.

For further information, please contact Nick Beckett at [email protected] or on +44 (0)20 7367 2490.