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.
The first actions of Spain and Italy against the decision of 25 EU member states to use the system of “enhanced cooperation” for the unitary patent package were rejected by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on 16 April 2013. One month earlier, Spain had launched on 22 March 2013 two new…
Software interoperability seems to be at the heart of any discussion to how to protect computer programs lately. Recent cases such as Oracle v. Google before the US Supreme Court, and SAS v. WPLtd before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) have probably something to do with it. The truth is that…
As readers will no doubt be aware, earlier this year the Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court (“UPC”) drew up a short-list of candidate Judges after selecting them from an overwhelming raft of more than 1300 applications. This author knows of at least one Spanish candidate Judge whose expression of interest was discarded on…
There are no disadvantages to the Unitary Patent package, as it is an optional system. Willem Hoyng, lawyer of Hoyng Monegier and member of the Legal and the Expert Panel of the UPC Preparatory Committee, wrote this in a paper made available to Kluwer IP News. If companies don’t want to put all their eggs…
Member States of the UPC Agreement reported on the national ratification processes during the 7th meeting of the UPC Preparatory Committee on 4 November 2014 in Brussels. According to the Preparatory Committee the situation looks promising since many Member States reported they hope to be able to ratify the UPCA in the course of 2015….
As part of their training, the first group of some 25 candidate Unified Patent Court (UPC) judges will follow internships at specialized patent courts, such as those in the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands. Paul van Beukering, Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the UPC, told Kluwer IP Law that various options are currently…
The 17th Draft Rules of Procedure for the Unified Patent Court have been published on 3 November on the website of the Unified Patent Court. A hearing on the new Draft is planned for 26 November 2014 at the European Law Academy (ERA) in Trier. The meeting will be open to some 200 experts from…
‘When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’ At the EU Patent Package Congress in Brussels, organized on 17 October by the universities of Antwerp en Louvain attended by Kluwer IP Law, several speakers tackled the issue: is the creation of a specialized court for patent litigation necessarily positive? For companies…
by Rechtsanwalt Dr. Ingve Björn Stjerna, LL.M., Certified Specialist for Intellectual Property Law, Düsseldorf. This article reflects the personal opinion of the author. In Spain’s nullity proceedings against the “unitary patent” Regulations, Advocate General Yves Bot will shortly deliver his Statement of Position, i. e. his suggestions on how the Court should decide these matters….
‘The unitary patent (UP) package is a strange animal.’ Margot Fröhlinger has no problem admitting that. As Principal Director Patent Law and Multilateral Affairs of the EPO she is closely involved in implementing the new patent system, which is expected to become operational in 2016. It is a complicated political compromise, based on both EPC…
