A ruling by the European Court of Justice, which states that the agreement creating a court responsible for European and Community patent litigation would undermine its own powers and those of national courts, represents another set-back for a streamlined European patent system. Talks to develop a shared patent for the EU began in 2000; an EU patent, called the Community patent, would cut both costs and the risk of forgery, protect inventions of EU origin and centralise disputes to one jurisdiction. Currently, the European patent office handles requests for European patents in individual member countries but the procedure involves several translations and different judicial systems. The topic is controversial with member countries struggling to agree on the linguistic regime to apply.
