The Italian Chamber of Deputies, the Parliament’s lower house, has approved the draft bill on ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA). According to a report of the Società Italiana Brevetti (SIB), there were 302 votes in favour, 108 against and 25 abstentions. The bill will now go to the Italian Senate. Despite the Brexit vote…
Where should the London branch of the central division of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) go, if it has to be relocated due to the Brexit vote in the UK? To Milan? The Hague? Brussels? Any other city? Public lobbying has started in Italy with a letter of the Industrial Property Consultants Institute. The organization…
The UK’s Intellectual Property Office has published a statement on the future of IP law after the Brexit vote of 23 June 2016, saying there will be ‘no immediate changes’ regarding the Unitary Patent system. In its document ‘IP and BREXIT: The facts‘, the UK IPO writes: ‘there has been much speculation on the future of many intellectual…
One month after the UK referendum, discussion has deepened and several papers have been published about the Brexit vote and the Unitary Patent system. Is it possible to both save the system and keep the UK in? EPO president Benoît Battistelli thinks the best case scenario would be for the UK to ‘go ahead as…
Can the Unitary Patent system still enter into force? Is it attractive without the UK or will companies rather stick with the established patent system as in force right now? According to Dr. Axel Walz, co-founder of the IP Dispute Resolution Forum (IPDR) in Munich, these topics have been discussed a lot among German colleagues…
President Benoit Battistelli of the European Patent Office hopes the United Kingdom will stay in the Unitary Patent system despite the Brexit vote of 23 June 2016. He has written this in a blogpost on the EPO website. Battistelli stresses ‘it is entirely up to the UK authorities to determine whether they want to participate…
Despite the UK’s Brexit vote, the preparations for the Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court will go on as planned. The UPC Preparatory Committee and the EPO Select Committee have declared this in a joint statement, issued on 1 July 2016. According to the statement, ‘last week’s vote in the United Kingdom in favour…
The Senate or ‘Eerste Kamer’ of the Parliament in the Netherlands approved the Unified Patent Agreement on 28 June 2016 without discussion. Two weeks ago, the Dutch Second Chamber, ‘Tweede Kamer’, had already ratified the UPCA. It isn’t clear when the Netherlands will complete the formal procedure by depositing its instrument of ratification with the General…
How to save the Unitary Patent project? As soon as the outcome of the UK referendum on a Brexit was known, discussions started behind the scenes about ways to adapt the Unitary Patent system so the UK can stay in. According to Wouter Pors of Bird & Bird, a new scenario has come up to…
With many others, the European IP community is in shock after yesterday’s UK referendum. Though polls had indicated it was impossible to predict whether ‘Remain’ or ‘Leave’ would prevail, somehow it was difficult to believe the UK would really turn its back on the European Union. For European patent specialists, it is hard to accept that…
