Austria’s first chamber of parliament recently approved of the ‘provisional protocol’ for the Unified Patent Court Agreement. Now only approval of the second chamber of the parliament and deposit of the instrument of ratification is needed to initiate the startup phase of the Unified Patent Court. This could only take a few weeks, and initiation of the startup phase is expected before the end of...
EPLIT Survey on Costs of Patent Litigation across Europe
EPLIT has conducted a survey among members on the costs of patent litigation proceedings in a selection of European jurisdictions.
Amicus Brief on videoconference oral proceedings – G1/21
EPLIT submitted an amicus curiae brief in respect of EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal pending case G1/21.
Article Virtual hearings: Legality goes online in WIPR
EPO VICO Proceedings – EPLIT Interview with World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR) In light of the recent referral to the EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal on videoconference Oral Proceedings, EPLIT President Leythem Wall has been interviewed by World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR) on his and EPLIT’s views. Particular reference is made to the results of the survey that EPLIT conducted in...
EPLIT Position Paper and Survey on Oral Proceedings by videoconference by the EPO Boards of Appeal
Please find here EPLIT’s position paper on the EPO Board of Appeal User Consultation regarding Oral Proceedings by videoconference, submitted on 27 November 2020.
EPLIT has also carried out a survey with its members on the use of videoconferencing in examination, opposition and appeal proceedings at the EPO. The results of this survey can be found here.
Progress in Germany – UPC Constitutional Complaints Deemed Inadmissible
Publicly announced today, and in a unanimous order dated 23 June 2021, the Federal Constitutional Court has rejected the two applications for preliminary injunction made against the Act for ratifying the UPC Agreement in Germany. The constitutional complaints (2 BvR 2216/20 and 2 BvR 2217/20) were filed on 18 December 2020, the same day the Bundesrat (upper chamber of Germany’s parliament) had...
EPLIT 8th Annual Meeting
The 8th Annual Meeting has been held online on Thursday 27 May 2021 from 14.00 till 17.30 CET. As well as the annual update on EPLIT’s activities and progress, a panel session on oral hearings by videoconference in national proceedings across Europe has been held. For our second panel discussion, Tessa Donavan (EPO Opposition Division Member) and Graham Ashley...
German Parliament Approves Ratification of the UPC Agreement
German Parliament Approves Ratification of the UPC Agreement Yesterday, 26 November 2020, the Bundestag passed the UPC ratification bill, exceeding the necessary two thirds majority highlighted as required by the decision of the German constitutional complaint. The vote of the German jury can be found here. An update from the UPC Preparatory Committee can be found here. Comments from the EPO...
Constitutional Complaint successful – UPCA on further hold
Today, the German Constitutional Court has handed down its decision in the case of the complaint against the Act of Approval to the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court. The reason for the decision is that the Act amends the German Constitution in substantive terms but has not been approved by the Bundestag with the two-thirds required majority. This is another setback for the project of the...
The UK will not be part of the UPC
EPLIT has learned that the UK government intends to stop its cooperation towards the creation of the Unified Patent Court. EPLIT considers this to be a regrettable development and remains committed to support the establishment of a pan-European court for adjudicating patent disputes. Ideally, such court would have jurisdiction not only for EU states but also for other European countries...