This week the Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court gathered at the Finnish Permanent Representation to the European Union for their sixth meeting. At this meeting the Committee approved a shortlist of suitable candidate judges that have the potential to become a judge of the UPC. As you know, the UPC will need both…
1 Introduction Reports that say there’s — that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things that we know that we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But…
At the Kluwer Patent Blog we keep our fingers on the pulse of patent litigation. With their trained fingertips our contributors measure the heart rate of new case law and developments from their various countries. When the normal and regular rhythm changes to an irregular pulse, they are ready to post their findings on this…
On 2 April 2014 the parliamentary committee Foreign Affairs of the Belgian House of Representatives voted in favor of the ratification of the UPC agreement. The vote in plenary session is planned for the week of 22 April 2014, but should be no more than a formality. This means that after Austria and France, Belgium…
On Friday, 21 February 2014, the Danish Government announced its plans to establish a local division of the UPC in Copenhagen if the Danish referendum on Denmark’s accession to the UPC should turn out positive. The decision is the result of a political agreement with almost all Danish parties represented in parliament and is widely…
In our previous blog Opting out and Opting in we discussed some of the questions regarding the transitional regime under the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA). Due to its importance and ambiguity this provision continues to be a source of considerable controversy, so much so that the Preparatory Committee, which is tasked with preparing the…
As readers of this blog may recall, the Danish government has for some time attempted to persuade a 5/6 majoirity of the Danish parliament to agree to cast the vote in favour of Danish accession to the UPC. Two political parties represented in the Danish parliament have, however, remained staunch opponents of Denmark joining the…
In a recent decision (case no. 4A_142/2013), the Swiss Federal Supreme Court had to decide whether one of the non-permanent judges of the Swiss Federal Patent Court, a Swiss patent attorney, was obliged to recuse himself due to activities of one of his colleagues in his patent law firm in connection with a trademark matter…
While the preparations for the future EU Patent Package are ongoing, it may be useful to familiarize oneself somewhat with some of the key options that the new patent system will offer to its users if and when it has been enacted. According to Art. 3 UPCA the future Unified Patent Court (UPC) will have…
The Danish government has now set a date for a referendum to decide on whether or not Denmark is to join the UPC. On 25 May 2014, in connection with elections for the European Parliament, the Danes will be asked to cast their vote on the UPC. For a long time, the Danish government seems…
