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[Jonathan]

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1642427.php/Italy-and-Spain-in-row-over-EU-patent-scheme

I thought it's been a done deal for awhile now that new .EU patents only need to be available in German, French and English; I haven't been paying attention to European patent politics for awhile, admittedly though.

[bartmans]

You can find the latest news about developments on the European unitary patent and the establishment of a common court on the blog of Axel Horns: http://www.ipjur.com/blog2/index.php?/archives/199-New-Developments-European-Patent-With-Unitary-Effect,-EU-Patent-Jurisdiction.html#extended

[bleedingpen]

Figures.  Italy is a real pain in the ass to file in. 

[JimIvey]

Figures.  Italy is a real pain in the ass to file in. 

Also to litigate in, from what I hear. 

Apparently, fling a patent suit anywhere in the EU prevents a parallel suit anywhere else in the EU.  So, defendants like to file for declaratory judgment in Italy, where the docket backlog is like 20 years or so.

What's justice delayed again?  ;-)

Regards.

[bartmans]

Hi Jim,

your assumption that such a patent suit would stop suits in other countries was true until a couple of years ago. Nowadays these so-called 'torpedo' suits are no longer recognized as procedure-stoppers, see e.g. http://www.eplawpatentblog.com/eplaw/2009/07/de-italian-torpedo-infringement.html, http://www.eplawpatentblog.com/eplaw/2009/03/de-italian-torpedo.html and http://www.simmons-simmons.com/docs/torpedo.pdf.

Reagrds.

[JimIvey]

your assumption that such a patent suit would stop suits in other countries was true until a couple of years ago.

Thanks.  The presentation I attended in which that was stated was more than a few years ago.  Thanks for the update.

Regards.