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Denmark ratifies the Unified Patent Court Agreement

DenmarkflagFollowing recent posts about Sweden and Belgium depositing their instruments of ratification in Brussels (Bork! and Belgium), we understand* that Denmark has now also deposited its instrument of ratification. This information is available on the Council of the European Union website here. This news brings the total official number of countries in the unitary patent system to five (after Austria, France, Sweden and Belgium).

Denmark is expected to host a local division of the UPC in Copenhagen, with Danish and English being the languages of the proceedings.

IPcopy’s ratification infographic (see below) has been updated to reflect the news for Denmark (as we noted in earlier posts, for an answer to the question “What’s up with this infographic?“, please see the bottom of the ratification post which also contains full details about the ratification process).  (more…)

European Patent Litigation Certificate – CIPA’s Public Consultation Seminar

Unified patent courtArticle 48(2) of the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court (which relates to representation) states: “Parties may alternatively be represented by European Patent Attorneys who are entitled to act as professional repre­sentatives before the European Patent Office pursuant to Article 134 of the EPC and who have appropriate qualifications such as a European Patent Litigation Certificate“.

What constitutes a European Patent Litigation Certificate has been the subject of much discussion already (here’s an earlier IPcopy article) and is now the subject of a formal consultation (details here) with a closing date of 25 July.

CIPA has announced that it is to hold a seminar on this subject on 2 July 2014 at CIPA Hall. Full details are after the break or you can click here and jump straight to the CIPA Events page to book your place. (more…)

Alice v CLS Bank: a serving of Bilski with lashings of Mayo

photo-3rThe Supremes have just handed down the Alice Corp v CLS Bank decision (here). The claims have been held to relate to a patent-ineligible abstract idea and so are not patent eligible under §101. The decision references the Bilksi case and also the framework described in Mayo v Prometheus. There doesn’t seem to be a whole heap of guidance on first reading on what constitutes an abstract idea. Merely reciting the presence of a computer in the claims is not enough though.

More analysis (much more analysis) is sure to follow shortly!

Mark Richardson 19 June 2014

European Patent Litigation Certificate – Public Consultation

Unified patent courtAs noted yesterday the Legal Working Group of the Preparatory Committee has launched a consultation on their proposals for the European Patent Litigation Certificate. The consultation timeframe is relatively short and runs until Friday 25 July 2014. Comments are to submitted electronically to secretariat@unified-patent-court.org. The consultation document can be found here and an explanatory memorandum can be found here.

Our initial thoughts on the consultation document (with reference back to the earlier version of this proposal) are noted below. We would welcome your thoughts in the comments section. (more…)

Consultation Craziness

GB+EU flagNot one, not two but three different patent related consultations have popped up in the last week or so, relating variously to the implementation of the Intellectual Property Act 2014, the implementation of the Unified Patent Court in the UK and the European Patent Litigation Certificate (required for European Patent Attorneys to have the right to represent clients in the Unified Patent Court).

The various consultations, their deadlines and a brief overview of each consultation are noted below. We’ll try and chime in with some more detailed thoughts in follow up posts. (more…)

And now Belgium ratify the UPC Agreement!

BelgiumFollowing yesterday’s post about Sweden depositing its instrument of ratification in Brussels (Bork!), we were notified by reader Hans van de Heuvel that Belgium has now also deposited their instrument of ratification. This information is available on the Council of the European Union website here. This news brings the total official number of countries in the unitary patent system to four (after Austria, France and Sweden).

Next up on the list could be Denmark as this site appears to suggest they have now got Royal Assent for their UPC Act following their recent referendum.

IPcopy’s ratification infographic (see below) has been updated to reflect the news for Belgium (as we noted in yesterday’s post, for an answer to the question “What’s up with this infographic?“, please see the bottom of the ratification post which also contains full details about the ratification process).  (more…)

Bork! Sweden ratifies UPC Agreement

Bork! (Image via Max Geiger/Flickr under creative commons (link))

Bork! (Image via Max Geiger/Flickr under creative commons (click image for link))

Update  

According to the European Commission website, Sweden deposited its instrument of ratification on 5 June 2014 to become the third country to complete its ratification formalities. Sweden are involved in setting up a Nordic-Baltic regional division of the Unified Patent Court and join France and Austria as the three countries who have completed the ratification process. Belgium and Malta have ratified the agreement but not yet deposited their instruments of ratification.

IPcopy’s ratification infographic (see below) has been updated to reflect the news from Sweden (for an answer to the question “What’s up with this infographic?“, please see the bottom of the ratification post which also contains full details about the ratification process).  (more…)

UPC: Preparatory Committee Progress Report

Unified patent courtThe website for the Preparatory Committee for the Unified Patent Court has just been updated with a progress report. Some highlights from the report are as follows: (more…)

CJEU hands down Meltwater Decision – in-depth analysis

EU flagThe Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) yesterday handed down its much anticipated Meltwater  decision (Case C-360/13 Public Relations Consultants Association v Newspaper Licensing Agency and Others).

The CJEU ruling follows a referral from the UK’s Supreme Court and related to whether cached copies and on-screen copies of websites that are generated in the course of browsing may be made without the authorisation of copyright holders. Here at IPcopy we’ve taken some time to look over the decision to bring you our in-depth review. (more…)

Apple WWDC 2014: what the patents say we can expect

appleWhat’s this? IPcopy doing an Apple patent themed post the week that the Worldwide Developer Conference starts? This couldn’t be a shameless SEO exercise could it? *

The WWDC, for those of you that don’t know, is Apple’s annual event for the software side of their business and a week long geekfest for those developers lucky enough to score one of the 5000 (or so) tickets on offer.

For the rest of us, the WWDC links in to that point of the year when speculation about Apple’s next products and services begins to ramp up. The WWDC is normally the point at which Apple fanbois find out what features the next version of the iOS operating system  will be sporting in the next couple of months. For everyone else the WWDC is a chance to practice their best Apple put-downs and then to have a look over the feature list to find out what features their non iDevice might be sporting in the next 6 months….[Note to lawyers: that was a joke].

So, what do the patents suggest we could be seeing for iOS8?

(more…)