Everything you always wanted to know about UPC
In these 27 Questions and Answers you can be fully informed about the Unified Patent Court which comes into effect on June1, 2023
Intellectual Property Expert Group
Intellectual Property Expert Group
Category European Patent Litigation
Where to bring a Patent action under the UPC rules?
The UPC or Unified Patent Court is a single European Patent Court covering 24 countries. The competence of the divisions of the UPC’s Court of First Instance is governed by Article 33 of the UPC agreement, which provides quite detailed…
UK Patent Law: Being Equitable About Equivalents
Until recently, the UK did not have the broad scope of protection for patent rights afforded by a doctrine of equivalents. In this article, the author considers whether, having adopted such a doctrine, the UK Courts may have gone too far when implementing it.
Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court stopped just before the Finish Line
Before the Brexit referendum in June 2016, it was commonly believed that the unitary patent system, which was intended to be implemented in early 2017, would be delayed for an unforeseeable period if the UK decided to leave the European…
Brexit, A Further Blow to Europe’s Unitary Patent
After Britain’s public vote to leave the EU, the question comes up – in as far as intellectual property is concerned – what effect the Brexit has for the Unitary Patent (also referred to as “UPC”) project that finally seemed…
May 31 Workshop European Unitary Patent
Today as well as on June 23, patent attorney’s firm EP&C together with Bas Berghuis van Woortman of Simmons & Simmons organize a seminar on the European Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court (UPC). Topics include: What is the…
Signing of the UPC Agreement a milestone?
On 19 February 2013, officials from 24 European Member States signed the Unified Patent Court agreement establishing a Unified Patent Court (“UPC Agreement).[1] When you read this, Bulgaria will probably have signed as well. Poland and Spain did not sign…
But you can’t patent software!
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. This is clear to me from the reaction I sometimes get when I tell computer scientists that I am a patent attorney specialising in computer patents. Frequently the response is, “But you…
Is there Life after EU Patent Court Death?
The recent opinion by the European Court of Justice that the proposed EU Patent Court contravenes EU law, has caused many to believe that the EU patent court is at a dead end and that it is difficult – if…
Nokia vs IPCom, ongoing UMTS patent litigation in Germany
Nokia, one of the leading mobile communications suppliers, is further put under pressure in its patent fight against IPCom. Recently, the Finnish company was the losing party in a patent infringement suit before the German regional court LG Mannheim on…
European Court of Justice feels competition from EU Patent Court and rules against it
On March 8, 2011 the highest EU Court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gave its ruling on the draft EU Patent Court or EEUPC. It does not look good at all, as the court concludes: “The envisaged agreement creating…
Smart Patents at War
The mobile communications industries is encountered by a so far unexampled burst of patent infringement claims. Almost all big market players are either faced with infringement claims driven by competitors or self taking court action. And also a few enterprises,…
Texas Forum Shopping – Europe has its share as well
Part of any smart patent litigation strategy is to seek the right venue. This is true for Europe as well as for the US. Among practitioners it is known that Texas is a preferred venue for patent litigation in the…
Holding up products at EU borders using patents
For several years now, patent holders and trademark owners have successfully been using European Regulation 1383/2003 to ensure that customs authorities in the EU detain or suspend the release of goods suspected of infringing their IP rights. These IP right…
Independent Invention
Is “independent invention” a cure against trolls in that it can be argued that infringement cannot be established in case of an “independent invention”? No it is not. A lot of confusion, misunderstandings, half-truths, nonsensical quasi-lawerly talk exists around the…
Patent Lull
MAybe it is time for some intellectual reflection on the current stage of patent litigation in Europe. Those reflections come from a idiot savant, as we are out of patent litigation in Europe for some time now and much what…
EPLA ‘s successor UPLS, what’s in a name?
Recently the European Commission requested the Council to authorize the start of negotiations for the conclusion of an Agreement Creating a Unified Patent Litigation System. Old wine in a new bottle? EPLA (European Patent Law Agreement) intended to address the…
Is there an After-Life for Pan European Injunctions?
I am sure you remember the good old days when Dutch patent practitioners introduced the “pan European injunctions”. Based on the idea that a European patent granted in Munich according to uniform (and unified) principles of patentability should enjoy pan-European…
Europe’s Patent Demise
You are a European institution, the European Central Bank, and you seek the invalidation of what has been granted as a valid right by another European institution, the European Patent Office (EPO). The last weeks we got a taste of…
A great patent judge passes away
As blogger just learned, on Christmas Eve, one of Europe’s great patent judges, Lord Justice Pumfrey, passed away quite unexpectedly at the much too young an age of 56. He was the author of many judgements that changed the patent…