Since last week the prototype of the case management and efiling software for the Unified Patent Court is online for testing purposes. In Brussels, Paul Van Beukeringen (chairman of the preparatory committee) explained today that the purpose of the testing is to get as much feedback as possible from users on how this case management system should work.
The prototype is available through the following link: http://prototype.unified-patent-court.org. Everybody can create an account to access all features of the prototype and give feedback. For now the prototype only shows how an infringement claim can be filed (an example of the statement of claim), applying rules 13-28 of the Rules of Procedure. An easy “sent feedback” button is shown in the bottom right of the pages in order to easily provide comments. With this button you can highlight certain parts of the prototype, such as fields in forms, and write comments about it.
The prototype is an off-the-shelf product from an Icelandic supplier (GoPro). Data shall be hosted by the German company T-systems. The prototype website explains the difficulty of creating an efiling and case management system for a Court which does not exist yet. Nothing can be learned from existing behaviour before the UPC. Therefore, the development team wants to learn from the national examples in the different member states of the UPC.
On its website, the Preparatory Committee explains that they want to use the feedback from the prototype to launch the tender for the UPC e-Filing and case management solution. A full, open procurement process, with publication of the procurement notice in the Official Journal of the European Union is planned for November 2014 and contract award in summer 2015.
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