A short introduction by Dr. Jochen Pagenberg, member of the European Working Group of EPLA
The European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA) is a proposal by a number of member states to resolve litigation of European patents. 900.000 European patents have been granted in the meantime and are still valid, but when it comes to litigation, patentees have to litigate in each country where the patent has been granted and where an infringer is selling. Since seven years some 10 countries have worked together in the EPLA Working Party and have come up with a detailed legal text which contains substantive law, procedural law, rules on the court structure and case management. Industry, judges and litigators are supporting this project, because it would allow for each country to institute a local or regional chamber which would become a part of the EPLA court system and which would be identical to existing national courts, with an additional foreign judge and a technical judge. Another feature of the system is that membership is optional and therefore those countries which have an interest in or need for a multinational court system would be free to join while others could wait and see how the system works. The language of the proceeding would be the language of the country where the regional chamber is located, if it is one of the three official languages of the EPO, English, French or German.
EPLA has been opposed by the EU Commission which regards it as a competing system to its own Community Patent Regulation which, however, has not succeeded to convince the users because, as far as litigation is concerned, it proposes to make the first and second instance courts part of the community court system. Users are however of the opinion that the experience in the field of trademark law shows that the community courts, since they are not specialized, are unable to offer speed, predictability and the required quality Since 2004 the text of EPLA is ready for a diplomatic conference, but the EU Commission and in particular France do not want to allow a litigation system outside the EU structures.
