The Unified Patent Court (UPC) is a planned future court common to EU Member States which participate in the Unitary Patent system, and it will be part of their judicial system. After a transitional period of 7 years or 14 years at most, it will have exclusive competence in respect of traditional European patents and European patents with unitary effect (Unitary Patents). The UPC is based on the Unified Patent Court Agreement. The Unitary Patent system and the UPC are planned to start functioning once certain ratification conditions have been fulfilled.
Here we are (at last), the UPC has opened its doors to claimants. Attorneys-at-Law before national Courts, like European patent attorneys, can now bear the new title of “UCP Representative” and thus exercise a new function of representative before UPC. This raises a number of questions for them. Like my colleagues, I have been consulted…
‘In about two years’ time the new system will launch’, was the expectation when this blogger was asked in the Autumn of 2014 to start following and writing about the Unitary Patent Package. A year before, 360 candidates had already submitted an ‘expression of interest’ to become a UPC judge, of which 124 were qualified…
As explained in our entry UPC: four reasons why the PPA is not legally in force, published on April 21, 2022, one of the collateral damages of Brexit is that the conditions for the entry into force of the “Protocol to the Agreement on a UPC on Provisional Application” (the “PPA”), which included the ratification…
While the start of the Unitary Patent system will celebrated tomorrow at the UPC in Luxembourg and on Thursday with the EPO event “Welcoming the Unitary Patent System – A new era for innovation in Europe”, tomorrow also a conference will be held in Brussels (4.30 – 6.30 pm) with a distinctly more critical title:…
It is unfortunate that the Unified Patent Court hired technical judges without explaining sooner what consequences that would have for their main jobs. Patent litigator Christof Augenstein has said this in an interview with Kluwer IP Law. Augenstein argued: ‘As there are only very few countries with technically qualified judges, it was absolutely clear that…
In view of the problems with opting out patents from the Unified Patent Court’s jurisdiction, the court will temporarily accept opt out applications in hard copy in case the CMS ceases to function. Just six days before the Unified Patent Court opens its doors, the court has announced that taking into account the ‘sharp increase of…
The Unified Patent Court has temporarily restricted non-essential functions of the CMS, in its endeavour to ensure that users who want to file opt-outs can do so within the Sunrise period. In an announcement on its website, the court says: ‘In view of the approaching end of the Sunrise period, we are striving to ensure…
With less than 2 weeks to go before 1 June 2023, it was about time for the UPC to tie several loose ends and to clarify various questions before becoming (more or less) fully operative. Here is an overview of what I found to be the most interesting news. 1.) Seat of the 3rd Subdivision…
The Italian Government has agreed with France and Germany to set up a branch of the central division of the Unified Patent Court in Milan. This has been announced by the Italian ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation. According to a press release, the agreement will be submitted to the other UP member states…
The Unified Patent Court has published an update on the problems with the CMS and the opting out of patents of the jurisdiction of the court before the starting date of 1 June 2023. On its website, the UPC writes: ‘Dear users of the UPC Case Management System, As you may have experienced, the CMS…
