Enforcement of European patents 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 Article 64(3) EPC, "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 Litigati