Friday, February 21, 2014 France takes the next step in ratification of unitary patent

According to World IP Review the National Assembly has ratified the agreement on a unified patent court. President Hollande must now sign the agreement.

After signing, the ratification must then be registered with the Council of the European Union. At present only Austria has taken this final step. As reported earlier also Malta appears to have ratified the UPC. At present neither France nor Malta is listed as ratified on the EU ratification page.

On the website of the Assemblée nationale, I find the following text: Est autorisée la ratification de l’accord relatif à une juridiction unifiée du brevet (ensemble deux annexes), signé à Bruxelles, le 19 février 2013, et dont le texte est annexé à la présente loi.

 Which I translate into:

Tuesday, February 11, 2014 After the Malta problem, will we get the Croatia condition?

As discussed yesterday, EP patent applications filed before March 1, 2007 may not be eligible for Unitary effect. Croatia is another state that may cause the same problem. Croatia joined the EPC on January 1, 2008. Because Croatia joined the EU last year (2013), they are not currently signatories to the UPC agreement.

Monday, February 10, 2014 Malta to ratify Unitary patent agreement (?)

Last week at IIR's Unitary Patent Package conference, I heard the rumor that Malta has ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court.

The ratification has not yet appeared on the EU website that tracks the unitary patent ratification progress. On the website of the Maltese Parliament, I can find what appears to be the minutes of 21 January 2014 (Sitting Number 110).

Monday, January 27, 2014 Will Denmark vote in favour of unitary patent?

As reported earlier, Denmark will hold a referendum to decide their participation in the unified patent court and unitary patent.

The decision is important for many reasons. Of course, Denmark would provide one more signature under the agreement, towards the goal of 13. So participation of Denmark makes the unitary patent more likely for all of us. More importantly, although Denmark may be one of the smaller EU countries it is nevertheless an important economy of the EU, the 11th in size. I consider part of the value of the future unitary patent to be its completeness. The ability to secure Europe with comparatively little overhead is definitely one of it selling point. It is already a pity that some countries are not joining, e.g., Spain, Poland, and Italy.


Moreover, there have been plans to create one large regional divisional of the unified patent court (UPC), that would serve the entire Nordic region.  Such a Nordic court could take infringement and revocation decision in first instance for Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and the Baltic states. If Denmark were to drop out, that would make this prospect much less appealing.

Having a single court that can decide on patent matters for most countries, instead of having expensive fragmented decisions, or the prospect of a more valuable European patent apparently appeals to the Danish population as well; According to a recent poll, the population of Denmark would vote in favor of joining the unitary patent.  If the referendum were held today, and not on May 25, 56% would vote in favor of the unitary patent. I'll keep my fingers crossed until then. 


See latest news: Denmark votes in favor of unitary patent

Monday, January 06, 2014 Dutch government expects unitary patent to reduce regulatory burden by 11.3 million euro

The Dutch government has published their autumn report on reducing 'regulatory burden'.  The report includes an annex containing the steps taken to reach the goal € 2.5 billion worth of reduction. Among the 45 pages (!) listing many many measures, I was pleased to find one labeled 'Unitary patent protection'. Below is the Dutch description, taken from page 20:

25 Lidstaten van de EU voeren een ‘unitaire octrooibescherming’ in. Dit betekent dat bedrijven die in Europa een octrooi willen aanvragen dit niet meer in al die Lidstaten apart hoeven te doen, aangezien het mogelijk zal zijn om een EU octrooi in 25 EU landen tegelijk te valideren. Een octrooihouder die voor deze route kiest zal niet meer worden geconfronteerd met nationale administratieve verplichtingen en vertaaleisen. Dit scheelt veel bureaucratie en kosten, vooral vertaalkosten. 

Wanneer alle octrooihouders hiervan gebruik maken, nemen de aan validatie in Nederland verbonden administratieve lasten af met maximaal 11,3 mln. De aan validatie van een unitair octrooi verbonden administratieve lasten en vertaalkosten kunnen nu nog niet goed worden ingeschat, maar zullen vele malen geringer zijn dan de kosten die octrooihouders nu nog in alle landen waar bescherming wordt gezocht, moeten maken. Tegelijkertijd met de totstandkoming van een Europees octrooi wordt voorzien in een geschillenbeslechting op Europees niveau.

Below is an English translation (edited form Google Translate):

Monday, December 23, 2013 Denmark to vote on unitary patent in referendum on May, 25th

According to the Copenhagen post, Denmark will definitely hold a referendum before joining the unified patent court. The unitary patent requires 13 states to ratify the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court. Denmark is one of the 25 countries that is currently eligible to ratify.

Thursday, December 19, 2013 Select Committee discusses compensation scheme for translation costs

At the Epo website there is a short report of the last meeting of the Select Committee on 10 and 11 December 2013.  At the EPO the select committee sets the rules of procedure for handling the unitary patent.

One of the discussed items is the compensation scheme for costs for translations. This scheme is introduced by article 5 of regulation 1260/2012. I can imagine that some if its provisions will cause the EPO some work to implement right.