This decision dealt with the practically important question of whether the claim can still be waived in the proceedings on the complaint against denial of leave to appeal, i.e. after the conclusion of the appeal proceedings. This becomes particularly relevant if the patent in suit is held invalid and the opposing party does not agree…

Starting tomorrow morning, external users can test the sunrise functionalities of the Unified Patent Court’s case management system for a three week period, until 16 December 2022. According to an announcement on the UPC’s website, ‘all tests will be carried out in the CMS test environment. This environment is a copy of the CMS production…

Johannes Karcher, acting chairman of the Administrative Committee of the Unified Patent Court, is optimistic the court will open its doors in April 2023 as planned, despite the questions which have been raised with the authentication of users within the Case Management System. He expects a solution ‘rather soon’ for the relocation of UPC cases…

Video conferences will become the default format of oral opposition proceedings in at the European Patent Office as of 2023. Only under certain circumstances, and when the opposition division permits it, will oral proceedings in opposition be conducted in person. A decision to that effect was announced yesterday, a week after the publication of the final…

The European Patent Office and the Unified Patent Court (UPC) have signed an agreement on the exchange of data between the two institutions. The agreement, which was signed by EPO President António Campinos and President of the UPC’s Court of Appeal Klaus Grabinksi on the fringes of a high-level conference last week in Brussels, provides…

Article 124, III of the so-called “PACTE” Law enshrines the disappearance of the statute of limitations for revocation actions concerning industrial property titles. It was intended to put an end to the previous case law, which was thus disproved, applying the five-year limitation period of Article 2224 of the Civil Code to these actions, notably…

Historically, China promulgated its first patent law in the 1980s, the result of its reopening and affiliation to the WIPO, which led to the country’s joining important multilateral agreements, such as the Paris Union Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1984) and the TRIPS Agreement (2001). This patent law entered into force in 1985…

The Unified Patent Court will lead to a concentration of forces in the European patent litigation sector. That is the expectation of Richard Ebbink, partner at Brinkhof, and Georg Rauh, partner at Vossius. In September, their firms announced they would start cooperating in a new brand, Vossius and Brinkhof UPC Litigators. Kluwer IP Law interviewed…

The preparations for the start of the Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court have gained momentum. In the upcoming week a high-profile conference on the UP system will be held in Brussels and a mock UPC trial in Paris. The conference, jointly organised by the Belgian government, the EPO and the European Commission, will…