A microstrip coupled‐line filter with a multilayer structure is designed and implemented. This structure provides additional overlapped coupling and cross coupling between two layers, except for the coupling effect on the same layer. The designed filter demonstrates the frequency characteristics with central frequency f0 = 2.4 GHz, return loss S11 = −12.2 dB, and insertion loss S21 = −2.49 dB. Moreover, it is found that, due to a transmission zero occurring at 3.14 GHz with −45‐dB rejection, a typical elliptic‐function response can be easily obtained by the proposed structure. Experimental results of the fabricated filter measured by using a network analyzer agree well with the simulation results. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 39: 493–495, 2003