The German ratification proceedings concerning the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA) have been formally started. According to German Rechtsanwalt Dr. Ingve Stjerna, the first hearing on the UPCA is planned to be held in the German Parliament on the evening (21:40) of 23 June 2016. Remarkably this is exactly the date that the Brexit referendum…

If a European Patent has been licensed to licensees in different European countries, opting out of the Unified Patent Court might be preferable to keep these licenses separated as far as possible, according to Peter Chrocziel. He is partner in the Intellectual Property practice of Freshfields in Munich and co-author of the publication ‘International Licensing and…

On 29 April 2016, the Australian Productivity Commission published a Draft Report on its enquiry into Australia’s Intellectual Property Arrangements. Although the Draft Report provides separate analyses on the state of copyright, patents, designs and trade marks, it arrives at a common conclusion:  Aussie IP needs work. “Not as effective as they could be” The…

Bulgaria has deposited its instrument of ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement at the Council of the European Union. It is the tenth member state to complete the ratification process. The Bulgarian Parliament had ratified the UPCA at the start of April 2016. Earlier, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal and Sweden…

by Claire Phipps-Jones ♪ “This indecision’s bugging me” ♪ On 23 June 2016, UK voters will be asked “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?”. David Cameron has confirmed that following a vote to leave, a non-retractable notice will be served under Article 50 of the…

The federal district court in Tyler, Texas, correctly construed the term “mountable” in a patent for a digital picture frame asserted by Profectus Technology against the manufacturers and sellers of tablet computer devices as “having a feature for mounting,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled (Prospectus Technology LLC v. Huawei…

The federal district court in Houston did not abuse its discretion in enforcing a forum selection clause between Wellogix, on one side, and SAP America, Inc. and SAP AG (collectively, “SAP”) on the other, in holding that trade secret claims brought by Wellogix against SAP were required to be dismissed because they were subject to…