The European Commission (EC) has outlined its vision for a unified European patent court, proposing a compromise between plans first proposed by the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA) and its own community patent model.

The EC today (3 April) recommended the creation of a unified patent system that draws strongly from the model laid out in the EPLA – the blueprint originally drawn up by lawyers and industry practitioners in 1999 and backed by many of Europe's leading intellectual property (IP) judges in 2005.

The system outlined by the EC includes a number of first instance chambers that make use of existing national structures and are based on best practice in member states. The chambers would be overseen by a centralised court of appeal, with the European Court of Justice acting as the final arbiter.