Finland became the ninth country to ratify the UPC Agreement when President Sauli Niinistö signed the law on its ratification on 8th of January 2016. The Parliament approved the ratification in December 2015, following the Judiciary Committee’s report on the 6th of November 2015 and the Constitutional Committee’s report on the 17th of November 2015,…
The procedure to select judges for the Unified Patent Court (UPC) will start within two months. An announcement and an online application form will be published on the UPC website at the end of February or beginning of March 2016 at the latest. The 2013 call for ‘expressions of interest’ in becoming a judge and…
In one of the most highly observed patent cases in Europe in 2015, Case C-170/13, Huawei vs ZTE, the Court of Justice of the European Union with judgment of 16 July 2015 provided valuable and long-awaited guidance on the antitrust/FRAND defense in cases of standard essential patents (SEPs). The decision at the same time raised…
The German ratification of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement will most likely be postponed until September 2016 and be decisive for the Unitary Patent (UP) system to go live. Wouter Pors, partner of law firm Bird & Bird, has said this in an interview with Kluwer IP Law. Thirteen ratifications are needed for the…
Will Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) profit from the new Unitary Patent (UP) system and the Unified Patent Court (UPC)? Although it was certainly the idea, observers have disputed this and particularly warned that litigation under the new system exposes SMEs to enormous risks. There is now formal recognition they have a point: the European…
Wolters Kluwer is proud to launch its new Kluwer Trademark Blog, our latest IP Law blog, in addition to the successful Patent and Copyright law blogs. Trademark law is constantly developing, especially in the European Union (EU). Ever since the introduction of European law and increasingly so after the harmonisation of European trademark law, the…
The creation of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) means that there will finally be a judiciary to control the very strong executive power of the European patent system, the European Patent Office, Jens Schovsbo, Professor at the Centre for Information and Innovation Law of the University of Copenhagen, told Kluwer IP Law in an interview. According…
Prompted by the upcoming Unitary Patent (UP) and Unified Patent Court (UPC), a group of European patent attorneys decided in 2013 to create the European Patent Litigators Association (EPLIT), ‘promoting fair patent litigation in Europe’. Kluwer IP Law spoke to its president, Koen Bijvank. ‘It is unpredictable how the market for patent litigation will change…
The countdown to the new Unitary Patent system has begun. The Unified Patent Court is expected to open its doors at the start of 2017, preceded by a provisional phase in 2016 for the practical set up of the Court and the recruitment of judges and staff. Not only European patent specialists are preparing, companies…
The lack of provisions on Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) is seen as a major flaw in the new Unitary Patent (UP) system. Initiatives have been taken to address this issue and recently the European Commission put it on its action list. Why doesn’t the UP Regulation include a provision for SPCs? Anja Lunze, attorney at…
