1. 1 CEIPI Conference Towards a European Patent Court 17 April 2010

2. 2 Centralisation & specialisation of patent litigation at national level in the Netherlands, exclusive jurisdiction of the District Court of The Hague (since 1995) in Italy, creation of specialised industrial property sections in 12 first instance tribunals (since 2003) in Denmark, Maritime Court in Copenhagen (since 2006) in the Czech Republic, Municipal Court in Prague (since 2008) (infringement cases) in France, Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris (since 2009) Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland, …

3. 3 Will the EEUPC reinforce this trend? For example, in France: Patent litigation heard at one place by a specialised court acting –as TGI Paris, when a case relates to a national French patent –as Local Division of the EEUPC in France, when a case relates to a European patent or to an EU patent Even if the Local Division EEUPC-CFI in France would not be legally or institutionally linked with the TGI Paris But in practice, the two courts would share all essential components –facilities, most of the judges and other staff –« EEUPC-cap », « TGI-cap »

4. 4 Regionalisation or conferral of competence on the Central Division Some Member States do not have a significant volume of patent litigation. Rather than setting up sparsely used Local Divisions, other options include –Regionalisation Where 2 or more Member States decide to set-up a Regional Division, they may designate several seats Each of these seats can likewise share all basic elements with a specialised national court dealing with actions relating to national patents –Conferral of competence on the Central Division

5. 5 EEUPC European Patent Office European Patent Community Patent Court of Appeal Central Division Local/ Regional Divisions First Instance Revocation actions Infringement actions European Court of Justice grant litigation appeal Appeal on Matters of Fact and Points of Law Preliminary Rulings on Community Law