THE FALLOW AND THE FERTILE - EPLA STRIKES AGAIN
The fallow and the fertile: EPLA strikes againRight: the European Patent Litigation Agreement. From this ...
The IPKat has just discovered this on Channel Register: following another round of failed talks earlier this weeks at ministerial level, European Commissioner for the Internal Market Charlie McCreevy has indicated that all efforts to establish the pan-European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA) are being made in vain. Even the French and the Belgians are making demands. According to another source McCreevy is quoted has having said:
"I will not over-dramatise the situation. But I will put it to you straight. If we are not able to find more fertile ground for a proposal over the coming months, then we might as well put our energies to better use".
Left: ... to this?The IPKat wants to know - is this a threat or a promise? Merpel adds, the problem isn't one of finding fertile ground, it's a problem of whether the Commissioner can cope with all the organic fertiliser that's been generated about the EPLA by people who have little or no real feel for patent disputes, how they arise and how they get resolved.
All about the EPLA here (per the European Patent Office) and here (per Wikipedia)