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UPC – The Ratification Game Update
As noted in an earlier post the agreement on the unified patent court (UPC) was signed by 24 member states on 19 February 2013.
Spain, Poland and Bulgaria were the three member states who did not sign the UPC agreement. Spain are sitting out of the unitary patent package completely at present and so have not signed. Poland and Bulgaria are part of the enhanced cooperation club that the unitary regulations have been prepared under. Poland, however, has decided to take a wait-and-see approach and so did not sign the UPC agreement. Bulgaria intends to sign as soon as it has made appropriate preparations.
In light of the UPC signing ceremony the Ratification Game post has been updated along with the football info-graphic. The full post can be found here but in the meantime here’s the updated graphic.
Unitary Patent Package – Rules of Procedure for the Unified Patent Court (14th Draft)
As noted in our tweet last week the 14th draft of the Rules of Procedure of the Unified Patent Court have appeared online (a copy can be found here). The document runs to almost 150 pages and 382 rules so it’s something of an early Christmas present for insomniacs.
The release of the 14th draft is expected to shortly be followed by the public consultation exercise on the rules of procedure. IPcopy understands that the window for public comments could be as short as one month and we will let you know as soon as we hear more. It is noted that page 2 of the 14th draft states that it is the aim of the Drafting Committee to complete the draft rules within three months of the signature of the Agreement (which is expected to happen on 19th February).
Unitary Patent Package – The Ratification Game (The UK completes its ratification formalities)
Update (26 April 2018)
According to the website of the Council of the European Union (and just about every other official IP channel), the UK deposited its instrument of ratification (on 26 April 2018) to become the 16th country to complete its ratification formalities. The UK joins Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Italy, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Finland, Portugal, Luxembourg, Malta, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, France and Austria as one of the sixteen countries who have completed their ratification processes.
The unitary patent system requires 13 countries to ratify, including the UK, France and Germany. However, the German Constitutional Court challenge has thrown the timescale and the long term future of the unitary patent system into doubt.
There are now enough countries to have ratified the unified patent court agreement that the system will come into effect if Germany completes its own ratification procedures and sufficient approvals to the PPA are obtained.
Now that the UK has completed all of the formalities we have updated our ratification infographic (for an answer to the question “What’s up with this infographic?“, please see the bottom of the post!”).
Unitary Patent Package – Timeline of events for 2013/2014
The much heralded unitary patent package* appears to be moving towards implementation after many years of proposal and counter-proposal.
Looking ahead, the various parts of the package are likely to come into force in 2014 (according to the official timescale anyway). Over the coming 12-24 months, there are a number of keys dates to note.
Why Malta could inadvertently block your unitary patent
You may have noticed that over here at IPCopy, we’ve been playing with the Unitary Patent Regulation, and testing it to its limits. We’ve already noted some quirks, including the fact that a patentee could potentially opt out of the unified patent court until 2047, and that if an infringement action is brought by an exclusive licensee, bifurcation is all but forced on the defendant.
But this is perhaps the one that’s baked IPCopy’s collective noodle the most so far: assuming that ratification (of the unified patent court agreement) proceeds in time for the Unitary Patent Regulation to come into force 1 January 2014, it appears to us that around one third of the patents that grant that year, and potentially even as many as half, will not actually be eligible for unitary patent protection*.
“How can this be?” I hear you cry! Well it’s all Malta’s “fault”, and here’s why… [we cannot help but think we’ve missed something in the analysis below so feel free to chip in with your thoughts in the comments section!]
Unitary Patent Package – Final texts
The final text of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court has now been published by the Council of the European Union. The two regulations relating to the unitary patent have already been published. Links to all three documents are below and also on our unitary patent package page.
1) Regulation (EU) No 1257/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2012 implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection – here.
2) Council Regulation (EU) No 1260/2012 of 17 December 2012 implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection with regard to the applicable translation arrangements – here.
3) Agreement on a Unified Patent Court – here. Corrections to Agreement here and here.
Mark Richardson 17 January 2013
Unitary Patent Package – Q&A
This is IPcopy’s original Q&A post on the unitary patent package (published 20 December 2012). A more recent and updated version of this post, which was published on 10 April 2013, can be found here.
After last week’s vote in the European parliament (Note: this article was published 20 December 2012), it seems that the unitary European patent really is here to stay. Many of the finer details are yet to be sorted out, and there is plenty of speculation in the patent world right now as to how things will pan out over the next few years. But there’s also plenty that we now know for sure about how the unitary patent will work, and how it might begin to affect your IP decisions, so here on IPCopy are the answers to your burning questions (grab a hot beverage of your choice and get comfy – it’s a long one…!):
IPcopy 