The Unitary Patent system adds to territorial fragmentation of patent law in Europe, rather than consolidating it, by leaving aside non-participating EU Member States. Also, it is based on rules in the Brussels I bis Regulation (BR) and the Unifed Patent Court Agreement (UPCA) which are not consistent, according to Dr. Michael C.A. Kant, expert…

Activities of Patent assertion entities (PAEs) in Europe are increasing dramatically and are encouraged by the Rules of Procedure of the upcoming Unified Patent Court, especially the possibility to obtain an EU wide injunction. This is argued by Intellectual Property 2 Innovate (IP2I), a coalition made up with nine companies ‘that create innovative products and…

UK prime minister Theresa May’s decision to call early general elections for 8 June 2017 could spell trouble for the Unitary Patent system, as it may delay the UK’s ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement. Nobody said the creation of a new patent system covering all EU member states was going to be easy….

Our indefatigable Kluwer News Blogger has obviously not failed to realize that another draft of the Rules of Procedure has just appeared on the UPC website. To confuse everybody, this draft is still called the 18th draft and seems to date from 19 October 2015. Yet if you go through the Status history, you will…

by Wouter Pors, Bird & Bird The Hague On 10 April 2017 the UPC Preparatory Committee published the ‘final’ version of the 18th draft of the Rules of Procedure, as adopted during the committee meeting of 15 March 2017. This is still a draft, since only the Administrative Committee can really adopt the Rules of…

The German Federal Council, the Bundesrat approved draft legislation to ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement and to amend German patent law in its 31 March session. It means the German procedure to ratify the UPCA nears completion. The Parliament, the Bundestag, had already given its approval on 9 March 2017. In order to finalize…

‘The UK will ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA) in March, most likely before the Brexit article 50 is triggered.’ It was only last month this scenario was described by the UPC Preparatory Committee during a conference in Amsterdam. By now, we know this has been overly optimistic, but is it a problem for the…

Spain will not join the Unitary Patent system. That became clear today during a session of the Spanish parliament. Earlier this month, the parliamentary committee for economics, industry and competitiveness had approved a motion of the socialist party PSOE, requesting the government to reconsider joining the system. Only the Popular Party, which runs the minority…

The Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court is confident that enough UPC signatory states will have acceded to the Protocol on Provisional Application of the court, in order for this provisional period to start at the end of May 2017. This has been announced after the final meeting of the Preparatory Committee on 15…