Italy, France and Germany have agreed on and proposed a division of the competences that were originally designated to London, between the three seats of the UPC central division in Milan, Paris and Munich. Milan could start taking cases around July next year. According to the proposal of the three member states, Milan will be…
Since the opening of the Unified Patent Court last Thursday, it has received eighteen cases, a spokesperson told Kluwer IP Law. According to a report by patent attorney Joeri Beetz of Keltie LLP, the first European patent to be challenged appears to be EP3666797B1, a ‘very recently granted divisional of an Amgen patent application originally…
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 European Patent Convention (EPC) is used daily by many patent practitioners and is essential reading for the thousands of candidates taking the European Qualifying Examination (EQE) each year. Since 1994, Visser’s Annotated European Patent Convention has been providing valuable insights into the EPC to help attorneys practise successfully before the European Patent Office (EPO)….
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…
