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European patents are granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) under the legal provisions of the European Patent Convention (EPC). However, European patents are enforced at a national level, i.e. on a per-country basis. Under , "any infringement of a European patent shall be dealt with by national law," with the European Patent Office having no legal competence to deal with and to decide on patent infringements in the Contracting States to the EPC. A few, limited aspects relating to the infringement of European patents are however prescribed in the EPC. Proposals have been long discussed to create a true unitary European patent system across Europe and especially across the European Union (EU), i.e. a European patent system wherein the enforcement of European-wide patents would be dealt at a supranational level rather than at a national level. These projects include the European Union patent (formerly named "Community patent") and the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA). The European Union patent is about to come to fruition, whereas the EPLA proposal has been dropped. The enforcement of European patents is therefore characterized by a fragmented system with "variegated national approaches towards patent-related litigations and (...) the possibility of having opposite decisions (and hence outcome) in case of parallel litigations."〔 Malwina Mejer, Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, ("Economic Incongruities in the European Patent System" ), ECARES working paper 2009‐003, January 2009. 〕 == Extent of protection == A first aspect relating to the infringement of European patents which is prescribed in the EPC is the extent of protection conferred by a European patent. reads: :''The extent of the protection conferred by a European patent or a European patent application shall be determined by the claims. Nevertheless, the description and drawings shall be used to interpret the claims.'' In other words, the "extent of the protection" conferred by a European patent is determined primarily by reference to the claims of the European patent (rather than by the disclosure of the specification and drawings, as in some older patent systems), though the description and drawings are to be used as interpretive aids in determining the meaning of the claims.〔 〕 A "Protocol on the Interpretation of Article 69 EPC"〔 (''Protocol on the Interpretation of Article 69 EPC'' ) 〕 provides further guidance, that claims are to be construed using a "fair" middle position, neither "strict, literal" nor as mere guidelines to considering the description and drawings, though of course even the protocol is subject to national interpretation.〔 ''E.g.'', ''Southco Inc v Dzus'', () R.P.C. 299 CA; ''Improver Corp. v Remington Products Inc'' () FSR 181. 〕 The authentic text of a European patent application and of a European patent are the documents in the language of the proceedings.〔 〕〔 Singer/Stauder, ''The European Patent Convention, A Commentary'', Munich, 2003, under Article 2, section "EPC provisions on European patents that take precedence over national law" 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Enforcement of European patents」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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