Recent patent law development in Europe

Since 1978 the European Patent Office issues European bundle patents. These patents have the same effects as national patents of the contracting states. Their validity and infringement are judged by the courts of the contracting states. Up to the present neither a Community patent nor a centralized European patent jurisdiction has been achieved. While the European Commission is aiming at establishing a centralized patent jurisdiction in the framework of the proposed Community patent regulation, without any jurisdiction over European bundle patents, a working party of the contracting states of the European Patent Convention (EPO) has submitted a draft for a European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA). At the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, which has been involved in the preparatory work for the EPLA, proposals for merging the two projects beneficially have been elaborated.