The update messages from the UK’s UPC Taskforce have started up again after the recent holiday break and we have the first update of what promises to be a fairly busy year.

Preparatory Committee – the next meeting for the Prep Committee is scheduled for this month and the agenda is scheduled to cover some significant items including: judicial salaries, Registry rules, arbitration and the final proposal for the court fees. (Will there be any changes to the level of the opt-out fee? It will be interesting to see the updated proposal in due course.) The Rules of Procedure will require some minor tweaking to incorporate the court fees and also admin errors in the  opt-out process and the Rules are due to come before the Prep Committee in April.

IT – a workshop is to be hosted in London on the issue of enabling API access to the courts eFiling system. Such access would allow users to directly interface with the system to submit forms and the like. Registration for the workshop is at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/unified-patent-court-api-workshop-tickets-20726369128 

Facilities – work on the London division should now be underway with a target completion date at the end of May.

Legal – the draft secondary legislation to amend the UK Patents Act to implement the UPC can be found on the legislation.gov website. The legislation is currently undergoing scrutiny after which it will be debated in both Houses of Parliament on a date to be decided. The legislation has sparked some discussion online in the manner in which the UPC infringement exceptions have been implemented.

Unitary patent – the EPO Select Committee has concluded its substantive work but will meet up in March to finalise administrative matters.

Mark Richardson 3 February 2016