The appointment of Antonio Campinos as new president of the European Patent Organisation has had a cautious reception. Campinos was elected during a meeting of the Administrative Council of the EPO earlier this month. He will succeed the controversial president Benoit Battistelli, whose term in office has been marked by years of deep social unrest….
Although the Irish government scheduled a series of referendums for 2018 and 2019 last month, the referendum on Irish participation in the Unitary Patent system was not one of them. This was confirmed by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation in Ireland. The press office of the ministry stated: ‘The Government deferred making a…
The Administrative Council (AC) of the European Patent Organisation has elected António Campinos to succeed Benoît Battistelli as President of the EPO. Campinos 5-year term will start on 1 July 2018. According to an EPO announcement, the Portuguese Campinos was elected during the AC meeting in Munich today. He is currently Executive Director of the…
In the US, the potential for forum shopping in patent litigation has recently been reduced by the TC Heartland ruling of the Supreme Court. But what can be expected at the Unified Patent Court, with its central, regional and local divisions? Amandine Léonard, PhD researcher at the KU Leuven Centre for IT & IP Law, thinks the…
The IT Team of the UPC Preparatory Committee will launch a new version of its CMS next week, in line with the requirements of the period of Provisional Application of the UPCA ‘and specifically designed for the Court’s sunrise phase’ – the period preceding the UPC opening its doors, during which European patents can be…
The Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court has been making ‘good progress’ regarding the ratification of the UPCA. In an update posted on its website today, the Preparatory Committee announces: ‘We now have 14 full ratifications and more in the pipeline, making it reasonable to expect that we will begin operations with closer to…
In the first period of functioning of the Unified Patent Court, the judge-rapporteur – who has important powers in the new system – should as much as possible revert issues to the panel of judges as a whole. This is beneficial for the system and can prevent forum shopping, according to the Belgian judge Sam…
In its research concerning the complaint that was filed against ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement, the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) gave a series of mainly German institutions and associations the opportunity to submit their views. A spokesman of the Court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht, declared in answer to questions of Kluwer IP Law that a…
The Federal Constitutional Court in Germany has started investigating the constitutional complaint that was filed earlier this year against the German ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement. As German attorney at law Dr. Ingve Björn Stjerna reported last week, the Court ‘most recently sent the constitutional complaint (earlier reported on by Kluwer IP Law…
Lithuania completed the ratification formalities of the Unified Patent Court Agreement on 24 August 2017 by depositing its instrument of ratification with the secretariat of the EU Council in Brussels. It is the 14th member state to do so. Earlier this month, Estonia ratified the UPCA. Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta,…
