European Patent Litigation Agreement

The draft European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA), or formally the Draft Agreement on the establishment of a European patent litigation system, was a proposed patent law agreement aimed at creating an "optional protocol to the European Patent Convention (EPC) which would commit its signatory states to an integrated judicial system, including uniform rules of procedure and a common appeal court".^[1] It differed from the Unified Patent Court Agreement in that the EPLA negotiations were coordinated from the side of the European Patent Office, rather than from the European Council and Commission^[2] and therefore also offered the possibility for non-EU states to participate.

The EPLA was a proposed alternative to a set of proposed Community patent regulations.^[3] The European Commission regarded the negotiations on the EPLA as unlawful,^[4] although in 2006 it had gained a considerable ground among patent practitioners^[3] and national patent judges.^[5][6] The EPLA proposal was essentially dropped in 2007 after the Legal Service of European Parliament issued an opinion that the EPLA would prima facie constitute a breach of Article 292 of the EC Treaty and thus the European Community and its members states could not participate.^[7] Many of its provisions were subsequently incorporated into the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, which is currently undergoing ratification.