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Tag Archives: UPC
Consultation Craziness
Not 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!
Following 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 (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
The 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…)
Unitary patent system – Scuttlebutt*
There’s not been much hard news recently regarding the unitary patent system so we’re going to take a leaf out of the 24 Hour Rolling News Playbook and start speculating away until something actually happens again….. (more…)
IP Bill becomes the Intellectual Property Act 2014
[Update 19.5.2014: the Intellectual Property Act 2014 has now appeared on the legislation.gov.uk website and can be accessed here]
The Intellectual Property Bill left the “ping pong” stage last month after the House of Lords approved the amendments made to the Bill by the House of Commons. Yesterday evening, the IP Bill received Royal Assent to pass into law as the Intellectual Property Act 2014 (House of Lords Hansard; Parliament (Intellectual Property Act 2014)).
As noted on the Department for Business Innovation and Skills website it is expected that some measures within the Act will come into force in October 2014, with all the measures being implemented by late 2015. (more…)
Intellectual Property Bill – Ready for Royal Assent
Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament
The Intellectual Property Bill returned to the House of Lords on 2 April 2014 as part of the “ping pong” stage. The Lords considered the amendments to the Bill made in the House of Commons. As noted in our earlier post the Commons only made amendments to Clauses 3 and 13 (these clauses relate to the qualification criteria for unregistered design right and the criminal offence for copying a registered design).
There was a brief amount of discussion in the Lords (see transcript here) but both amendments were approved. The Bill will now move to Royal Assent and will pass into law.
The Intellectual Property Bill contains a clause related to the Unified Patent Court (see Clause 17). However, it is not expected that the UK will ratify the unified patent court agreement until mid 2015.
Mark Richardson 8 April 2014
IPReg Consultation on simplifying and modernising the examination system for qualifying as a patent attorney
IPReg has now confirmed that their recent consultation looking at the UK patent attorney exam system has closed. Not surprisingly there were a large number of responses and IPReg is suggesting a minimum of 3 months but more likely 6 months before their conclusions are published.
All the responses will, in time, be published unless you contact them and inform them otherwise.
See below for a selection of published responses to the consultation.
European Patent Litigation Certificate (& other appropriate qualifications)
[Note: see also the post on 18 June 2014 relating to the public consultation for the EPLC proposals. Closing date is 25 July 2014. ipcopymark 18 June 2014]
Back in January this year CIPA and the IPO held a joint open meeting to discuss the issue of representation before the Unified Patent Court. This is a very important topic for patent attorneys and the CIPA/IPO meeting explored whether UK patent attorneys (who are EPAs) would have rights of representation at the UPC or whether additional qualifications would be necessary. IPcopy’s reports on this meeting are at the following links – Part I and Part II.
Last week an article went up on the Law Society Gazette asking “Who can act in European patents?” and reference was made in this article to a draft paper that has recently been produced by the legal working group of the preparatory committee. IPcopy had not seen this paper (or even heard of its existence) but the author of the Law Society article was kind enough to provide us with a copy. [Update: a copy of the draft paper has now appeared online and can be accessed here. 10/3/14]
In our view, if you are a European Patent Attorney, then this report does not make for happy reading. If the views expressed in the CIPA/IPO meeting are anything to go by then this seems especially the case if you are an EPA and UK patent attorney. IPcopy summarises the main points of the draft paper below. (more…)
CIPA/IPO Meeting to discuss representation in front of the Unified Patent Court – Part II
IPcopy attended the joint CIPA/IPO open meeting on 21 January 2014 to discuss the issues of representation before the Unified Patent Court.
In Part I of our review of the meeting we looked at the opening set of remarks provided by Neil Feinson of the IPO, Vicki Salmon’s discussion of Article 48 of the Unified Patent Court Agreement (copy here) and Chris Mercer’s review of Rule 286 of the Rules of Procedure of the Unified Patent Court (current on the 15th draft, a copy of which can be accessed here).
In this post we focus on the thoughts made by The Hon Mr Justice Birss in summing up the meeting. It is noted that Mr Justice Birss stressed that any views he made were not an endorsement of the official UK position and that he reserved the right to change his mind!
(more…)
IPcopy 