The industry has serious concerns about the deteriorating patent quality at the European Patent Office. The issue was discussed earlier this month between the EPO and the Industry Patent Quality Charter, an group representing major international corporations, law firms and patent offices. After their meeting, Beat Weibel, chief IP counsel, group senior vice-president at Siemens…
The Unified Patent Court has announced an optimized API opt-out process will be in place as of 1 March 2023, at the beginning of the sunrise period. A new set of guidelines and specifications are available on the UPC’s website for developers dedicated to the sunrise period. The revised process for opt-out via API will…
In June 2023 the European patent landscape will see one of the most dramatic changes in decades with the introduction of the Unitary Patent (UP) and the opening of Unified Patent Court (UPC). In a short series this blog will go through the main characteristics of the system and decisions that need to made to…
The story of the creation of the Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court was like the game ‘Fortunately, unfortunately’, according to Pierre Véron. The French patent litigation specialist was the founder and first president of the European Patent Lawyers Association (from 2001) and has been involved in the creation of the Unitary Patent Package…
The EPO has opened its public user consultation on the latest version of the EPC and PCT-EPO Guidelines, which will come into force on 1 March 2023. Users are invited to submit their comments in any of the EPO’s three official languages via an online form by 4 April 2023. The Guidelines for Examination in…
In June 2023 the European patent landscape will see one of the most dramatic changes in decades with the introduction of the Unitary Patent (UP) and the opening of Unified Patent Court (UPC). In a short series this blog will go through the main characteristics of the system and decisions that need to made to…
The Unified Patent Court has announced a practice period will be held from 13 to 24 February 2023 to try out the CMS sunrise functionalities which, as of the first of March, will enable users to opt out European patents from the jurisdiction of the UPC. During the practice period a CMS test environment will…
He left the UPC somewhat unexpectedly late 2022, and now he’s back already: Alexander Ramsay, long-time chairman of the Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court, has been appointed as Registrar of the new court. This has been announced on the UPC’s website. Axel Jacobi from Germany will be Deputy-Registrar. Both new officials of the…
A preparatory training for UPC appointed judges was launched yesterday in Budapest. According to an announcement on the UPC’s website, the legally and technically qualified judges of the Court are participating in the training, which aims at facilitating an in-depth understanding of the Rules of Procedure of the UPC. ‘It is organised as a partnership…
Templates and guidances that judges may use must help develop a harmonized format for decisions and orders at the upcoming Unified Patent Court. Klaus Grabinski, President of the Court of Appeal of the UPC, has said this in an interview with Kluwer IP Law. Grabinski thinks the court will bring patent litigation in Europe closer…
