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…
by Dr. André Sabellek In a recent judgment the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf (OLG Düsseldorf) had to deal with the application of the “Specific Mechanism” for parallel imports of pharmaceuticals if those pharmaceuticals are protected by a supplementary protection certificate (SPC) (judgment of August 6, 2015, court docket: 2 U 21/15 – Ezetimib, <http://www.duesseldorfer-archiv.de/?q=node/6461>)….
In an appeal from an opposition decision that maintained the patent, an EPO board refused to admit an auxiliary request that had been filed by the proprietor during opposition and formally re-entered with the initial response to the grounds of appeal. Other than implicitly through arguments about the main request, the response failed to take…
The Rules of Procedure for the future Unified Patent Court have been published. According to the UPC Preparatory Committee ‘this is a major milestone in the progress of the Committees work’. ‘The agreed text is Draft no. 18 which shows that the text has undergone a rigorous process of development and testing. The Rules of…
Draft rules for the Patent Mediation and Arbitration Centre (PMAC) of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) will be discussed during the next meeting of the UPC Preparatory Committee on 19 October 2015. Together with these rules, a Memorandum of Operation will be introduced regarding the proposed legal and operational structure of the Centre. Sam Granata,…
Secessionist pressure grows in Catalonia, after regional elections on 27 September 2015 (qualified as an informal referendum on independence) were won by supporters of an independent Catalonia. In Scotland supporters of independence have been far from silenced since they lost a referendum on the same issue last year. Kluwer IP Law found the following article…
‘Europe can become a more attractive forum for patent enforcement than the US’, according to Wouter Pors, partner of Bird & Bird. Kluwer IP Law interviewed him about the new draft proposal for the Rules on the European Patent Litigation Certificate and other appropriate qualifications. ‘We shouldn’t just focus on the minimum requirements.’ Pors expects the…
