Paris Lyon The Unified Patent Court state of the play in May 2016 Pierre Véron Honorary President EPLAW (European Patent Lawyers Association) Ljubljana ● 5 May 2016 ● Unitary Patent: opportunity or challenge? Evropski patent z enotnim učinkom: priložnost ali izziv?
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Paris Lyon
The Unified Patent Courtstate of the play in May 2016
Pierre VéronHonorary President EPLAW(European Patent Lawyers Association)
Ljubljana ● 5 May 2016 ● Unitary Patent: opportunity or challenge?
Evropski patent z enotnim učinkom: priložnost ali izziv?
The Unified Patent Court
Summary
Why a new patent litigation system in Europe?
The Unified Patent Court: a formidable challenge
State of the play
Rules of procedure
2
The Unified Patent Court
Why a new patent litigation system in Europe?
A new system was needed to cure the defects of the current patent system in Europe
Lack of real unitary patent protection
Jurisdiction given to national courts in parallel proceedings
3
The Unified Patent Court
Lack of real unitary patent protection:the current European Patent is a “bundle” patent, not a unitary patent
The European Patent Office provides a single patent grant procedure, but does not grant a single patent as far as enforcement is concerned
The so-called European Patents are not European Union patents or even Europe-wide patents: instead they are a “bundle” of national patents.
4
The Unified Patent Court
5
1973
The current European Patent “bundle patent” : once granted by EPO it becomes a series of “national patents”
V
Cour de cassation
Ca
ssa
tio
n
Cour d'appel
Tribunal
de grande instance
Ap
pe
al
Bundesgerichtshof
Reco
urs
e
Oberlandesgericht
Landgericht
Ap
pe
al
House of Lords
Re
co
urs
e
Court of Appeal
Patents Court
Ap
pe
al
UNITED KINGDOMFRANCE GERMANY
Enlarged
Board of Appeal
Board of Appeal
Examination Division
Opposition Division
Ap
pe
al
GRANT
Referral
Bundespatentgericht
Appeal
Validity Infringement
VALIDITY & INFRINGEMENT
The Unified Patent Court
6
Jurisdiction for validity and infringement
Jurisdiction for validity and infringement given to national courts in parallel proceedings causes:
Forum shopping strategies (choose the best court where to bring your case)
Conflicting decisions(courts of various countries issue opposite rulings on the “same” patent)
The Unified Patent Court
Patent litigation in Europe: figures
Number of new patent cases per year (rough estimate) in countries with ≥ 50 cases/year
Source: Harhoffhttp://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/indprop/docs/patent/studies/litigation_system_en.pdf
7
FR450
DE700
NL50
UK100
IT250
The Unified Patent Court
Conflicting judgments:an example patent case
Document Security Systems Inc. vEuropean Central Bank
8
The Unified Patent Court
The moiré effect
9
European Central Bank v Document Security Systems Incorporated [2008] EWCA Civ 192 (19 March 2008)
The Unified Patent Court
10
Conflicting judgmentsDocument Security Systems /Banque centrale européenne (security)
United Kingdom : patent invalidHigh Court 26 March 2007 EWCA 19 March 2008
Germany : patent valid 1st instanceBundespatentgericht 27 mars 2007
patent invalid appealBundesgerichtshof 8 July 2010
France : patent invalidTribunal de grande instance de Paris, 9 janvier 2008
The Netherlands: patent valid 1st instanceRechtbank La Haye 12 mars 2008
patent invalid appealBundesgerichtshof 21 December 2010
Spain : patent valid
The Unified Patent Court
Document Security System v European Central BankOutcome of the proceedings
Patent held invalid(1st instance & appeal)
Patent held invalid (appeal)
Patent held valid
11
The Unified Patent Court
12
Conflicting judgmentsNovartis / Johnson & Johnson (contact lenses)
The Netherlands : patent valid and infringed11 February 2009 Rechtbank The Hague
France : patent valid and infringed25 March 2009 Tribunal de grrande instance Paris affirmerd by court of appeal
United Kingdom : patent invalid for insufficient description (but meeting novelty and inventive step requirements) High Court 10 July 2009
Germany : patent invalid for lack of novelty (but meeting description requirement) Bundespatentgericht 10 décembre 2009
The Unified Patent Court
Conflicting judgmentsNovartis / Johnson & Johnson (contact lenses)
Patent held invalidnovel but insufficient description
Patent held invalidsufficient description but not novel
Patent held validand infringed
The Unified Patent Court
14
1973
1975
The 1975 Community Patent Convention will never come into force
National Supreme Court
Ap
pe
al
National Court of Appeal
National Court of First Instance
Ap
pe
al
Compulsory preliminary
request
binding decision
COPAC
(validity and infringement)
The Unified Patent Court
The Unified Patent Court
15
The Unified Patent Court
A formidable challenge
The agreement aims at creating the first supranational court in Europe having jurisdiction for disputes between private parties
A court “common to several EU Member States”, not a EU court
16
The Unified Patent Court
The Expert group of the European Union Commission
17
(judges, attorneys and industry representatives)
The Unified Patent Court
18
Agreement on a Unified Patent Court
19731975199920002003200720092011
Court of Appeal
Central division Regional divisionLocal division
???
Regional divisionLocal division
Appeal
(facts
& law
)
Registry
optional preliminary request
binding decision
optional preliminary request
binding decision
European Court
of Justice
2013
The Unified Patent Court
19
Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court: contemplated schedule
30 November 2013 (?) • Ratification process completed
April 2014 (??) • First European Patent with Unitary Effectgranted and Unified Patent Court in place
The Unified Patent Court
20
Legal sources
17 December 2012Regulation 1257/2012 enhanced cooperation creation of unitary patent protection
17 December 2012Regulation 1260/2012 (translation arrangements)
19 February 2013Agreement on a Unified Patent Court and draft Statute
19 October 2015Draft Rules of procedure Unified Patent Court (V18)
http://www.upc.documents.eu.com/PDFs/
2014-10-31_Agreement_UPC_DE-EN-
FR_and_Rules_Procedure_UPC_DE-EN-
FR_Draft_17_and_Trier_hearing.pdf
The Unified Patent Court
The main publicly available documents can be found on
www.upc.documents.eu.com
21
The Unified Patent Court
Ratifications
Entering into force when 13 contracting States including FR, UK and DE have ratified
8 ratifications so far:AU, FR, SE, BE, DK, MT, LU, PT and FI
Before the decision to schedule the Brexit referendum on 23 June 2016, the UK government was intending to bring forward legislation to implement the Unified Patent Court Agreement in January 2016 https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/secondary-legislation-implementing-the-unified-patent-court
Draft bills published on 16 February 2016 in Germany for ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement and implementation of Unitary patent system into German lawhttps://www.bmjv.de/SharedDocs/Gesetzgebungsverfahren/Dokumente/RefE_Uebereinkommen_EinheitlichesPatentgericht.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=2
https://www.bmjv.de/SharedDocs/Gesetzgebungsverfahren/Dokumente/RefE_Begleitgesetz_EuropaeischePatentreform.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=3
22
The Unified Patent Court
23
1
A changing territory
EPO and EU
EPONON EU
(Two different Europes: EU & EPO)
The Unified Patent Court
24
1
A changing territory
(Five different Europes: EU, EPO, UP, UPC)
25 UP(EPO + EU + UP + UPC)
EPO(NON EU)
ES(EPO+EU NON UP NON UPC)
IT(EPO + EU + UPC + UP 2015)
HR(EU POST UP - POST UPC)
PL (EPO +EU +
UP NON UPC)
The Unified Patent Court
25
The Court of first instance:central, local and regional divisions(based on the intentions to create divisions as supposed early 2016)
© Véron & Associés
Central Division also competent as "local" for:AT, IE, LU, MT, PT
Baltic Regional Division (SE, EE, LT, LV)
Finland
Denmark
United Kingdom
The Netherlands
Germany (4 divisions)
Belgium
France
CZ-SK Regional Division ?(CZ, SK)
Central Regional Division ? (HU, SI, HR)
Poland (UP - non UPC)
Spain (non UP - non UPC)
Croatia (EU post UP & UPC)
The Unified Patent Court
Court of appeal
LuxembourgHemicycleKirchberg
27
The Unified Patent Court
Court of First Instance
LondonAldgate Tower (City)
28
ParisPalais de Justice
MunichBundespatentgericht
?
The Unified Patent Court
Rules of procedure : stage 0
29
4 November 2006, Venice Forum : European Patent Judges approve the main principles of the rules of procedure
The Unified Patent Court
Drafting process: stages 17 +
30
26 November 2014: Public hearing in Trier
The Unified Patent Court
Berlin 25-26 June 2015
Joint meeting Legal Framework Working Group, Preparatory Committee + Drafting Committee about the 18th draft
31
Johannes Karchercoordinator of the Legal Framework Working Group
The Unified Patent Court
What’s next?
32
2016: Administrative Committee’s final approval
The Unified Patent Court
33
Rules of procedure (382 rules)
Draft Rules of procedure of the Unified Patent Court 19 October 2015 (V18) http://www.upc.documents.eu.com/PDFs/2015-10-19_UPC_Rules_of_Procedure_18th_Draft_clear.pdf
“proceedings shall be conducted in a way which will normally allow the final oral hearing on the issues of infringement and validity at first instance to take place within one year” (preamble)
1, rue Volney75002 ParisTel. +33 (0)1 47 03 62 62Fax +33 (0)1 47 03 62 69
53, avenue Maréchal Foch69006 LyonTel. +33 (0)4 72 69 39 39Fax +33 (0)4 72 69 39 49
Thank you
Pierre Véron
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