Three years after the last recruitment campaign for legally and technically qualified judges of the Unified Patent Court, the UPC Preparatory Committee has launched a new round of recruitment for UPC judges. An announcement was published on the website of the Preparatory Committee (Prep Com) earlier today. Kluwer IP Law understands the Preparatory Committee had…
The Paris offices of the future Unified Patent Court have been disclosed. The Paris location for the UPC was announced recently, and according to the French Patent & Trademark Attorneys Company CNCPI, the first visit of the offices was organized by the Justice Ministry last Monday. ‘Located at the Quai de la Mégisserie, these offices…
In Italy, legislation to adapt the patent system to the Unitary Patent will enter into force on 27 March 2019. This means legislative preparations in Italy for the start of the UP and UPC have been completed. The Legislative Decree of 19 February 2019 to incorporate the provisions of the Unitary Patent Regulation (EU 1257/2012)…
The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (BVerfG) intends to decide on the complaint against German ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement this year. The case (2 BvR 739/17) is on the 2019 decision list, which was published yesterday. It doesn’t come as a surprise. The UPCA case was on the 2018 list as well,…
It is often said that ‘tomorrow never comes’. Likewise, a recurring theme for some years has been that ‘the UPC will start next year’. As 2019 is now well under way, it is time to consider whether this year we can be more optimistic than this, and how the turmoil in the UK Parliament affects…
While the UK is holding its breath ahead of Parliament’s vote on the Brexit deal, many patent specialists think a ‘no deal’ will be a fatal blow for the UK’s ambition to stay in the Unitary Patent system. But according to Alfonso Sabán, attorney at law and political scientist in Madrid, it is obvious that,…
The preparations for the Unified Patent Court are going on so the court can start functioning as soon as possible if the German Constitutional Court rejects the challenges to the Unitary Patent project. The UPC Preparatory Committee has declared this in an update which was published on its website on 19 december 2018. It is…
If a Brexit agreement is reached with the European Union, the UK can stay in the Unitary Patent system during the transitional period and likely be part of the system once this comes into effect. This was argued last week by Kevin Mooney of Simmons & Simmons, who is closely involved in the creation of…
The fact that the German Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) requested the Bundespräsident not to proceed with ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement indicates that the complaint against the UPCA will be admitted for a decision. This is one of the observations of Dr. Ingve Björn Stjerna, the Düsseldorf based IP specialist who is behind…
The UK Government issued guidance today on patent issues to allow businesses and citizens to understand what to do in a ‘no Brexit deal’ scenario. The so-called Technical Notice includes information about the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court, and explains that it is unclear whether the UP system will start before the Brexit date of 29…
