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Unitary patent: Advocate General’s opinion on the Spanish Challenge is delayed
Set phasers to “Wild Speculation”.
As has been widely covered, Spain is challenging the Unitary Patent Package via two actions at the CJEU ( C-146/13 and C-147/13 against the European Parliament and the European Council). In what has been a relatively quiet few months for news relating to the unitary patent and the unified patent court, IPcopy was looking forward to 21 October 2014 which was when the Advocate General was expected to publish the AG’s opinion on the two Spanish actions.
However, the IPO’s monthly newsletter IP Connect is now reporting that publication of the AG’s opinion will not take place in October and no revised date has been given (see page 5 of the October IP Connect). What does this mean? Perhaps the AG is just busy but maybe there are issues with the opinion and its potential impact on the Unitary Patent Package or perhaps the EPO’s role in the system. We’ll keep an eye out for further news on this issue but if anyone knows more please feel free to chime in below in the comments section.
Mark Richardson 6 October 2014
Unitary patent system & EPO strikes – answers from the European Parliament
Back in June IPcopy noted that there were three questions pending in front of the European Parliament from Marc Tarabella (Member of the European Parliament – see his biography here) that related to the unitary patent system. There was also a fourth question regarding relations between the EPO and the EU from another Member of the EU Parliament.
Answers to these questions were recently posted and are highlighted below.
Unitary patent system & EPO strikes – questions in the European Parliament
Marc Tarabella is a Member of the European Parliament (see his biography here). Back in October 2013, he asked a question of the Commission relating to the possibility that “patent trolls” could soon arrive en masse in Europe thanks to the incoming unitary patent system. As noted on IPKat this question resulted in a slightly sniffy response from Commissioner Barnier which started by saying “The Commission fails to see how the recent Union legislation on patents, namely Regulations 1257/2012 and 1260/2012, could increase the activity of so called ‘patent trolls’ in Europe.”
It would seem Mr Tarabella has not been put off by the previous response he received and he’s recently asked more questions about the unitary patent system. It should be noted that Mr Tarabella generally appears to be something of a Parliamentary Questions Factory with, currently, 1229 questions on various topics to his name!
All three of Mr Tarabella’s questions were asked on 17 April 2014. (more…)
IPcopy 