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.
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…
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…
As the Unitary Patent (UP) system is expected to start functioning in 2017, proprietors of European patents are faced with the choice to opt these out of the jurisdiction of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), or to stay in the new system. The main advantage of the UPC is that its decisions are enforceable in…
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…
Although observers think a ‘leave’ vote in the UK Brexit referendum of 23 June 2016 could be a great setback or even the end for the Unitary Patent (UP) system even before it launches, preparations go on unabatedly. Recruitment of judges for the Unified Patent Court (UPC) is underway, a Draft Code of Conduct has been published, and at its…
A decision on the Code of Conduct for practitioners at the Unified Patent Court, which was scheduled for May 2016, will likely be postponed. In reaction to a critical letter of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), that argued it should have the opportunity to advise on the draft Code, the…
The recruitment of legally and technically qualified judges of the Unified Patent Court has started. Vacancy notices for the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal in English, French, and German were published on 9 May 2016. As is explained in the vacancy notice, an Advisory Committee (comprising ‘patent judges and practitioners in patent law and…
To ensure you don’t miss out on interesting IP law developments reported on our other IP blogs, we will, on a regular basis, provide you with an overview of the top 3 most-read posts from each of our IP law blogs. Here are the top posts from last month. Top 3 Kluwer Patent Blog posts…
by Nicholas Round On 19 April 2016 Birss J handed down a short but notable judgment in the matter of EMGS v PGS. Following a three-week trial in March 2016 the parties had decided to settle the matter before receiving judgment. However, the purpose of Birss J’s judgment was not particularly to comment on this,…
European patent attorneys should make a joint effort and gather data to assess the impact of procedural issues on opposition procedures at the European Patent Office and, in the future, on decisions of the Unified Patent Court. Michael Wallinger, partner of law firm WRST, proposed this at the annual meeting of the European Patent Litigators…
