Jurisdiction over European Patent Disputes, and the European Payment Procedure Order

Richard Taylor (DLA Piper) has written a short summary in the latest issue of the Law Society Gazette, discussing the response by the European Court of Justice, in Roche Nederland BV v Primus (C-539/03) and in Gesellschaft fur Antriebstechnik mbH & Co KG (GAT) v Lamellen und Kupplungsbau Beteiligungs KG (LuK) (C-4/03), to attempts by European courts to extend their jurisdiction over European patent disputes, referring to the provisions of the Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters 1968.

Ref: Law Society's Gazette L.S.G. (2006) Vol.103 No.39 Page 31

In other news, the European Parliament's second reading of the proposal for the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council creating a European order for payment procedure is scheduled for the 23rd October 2006.

The discussions in the various European organs have gone smoothly for this particular proposed Regulation. The only point of difference between the amended Commission proposal and the common position of the Council concerns the definition of the term “cross-border case”. The Commission "regrets" the limitation to cases where both parties are domiciled in a Member State and has made a declaration accordingly.

No surprises are expected on the 23rd October either; the common position of the Council has been negotiated together with the European Parliament in view of reaching a first-reading agreement. Therefore the European Parliament should not request any amendments of the common position – at least in theory.