4. Juli 2022
The EPO
President and Vice-Presidents met with the Chairs and Vice-chairs of the governing
bodies of the Unified Patent Court, leaders of the working groups responsible
for different areas related to the implementation of the Agreement on a Unified
Patent Court, as well as the Chair of the Select Committee of the
Administrative Council for the Unitary Patent. In their second meeting since
the start of the provisional application period on 19 January 2022, participants
took stock of key developments since 7 February 2022, and discussed progress made towards the forthcoming launch of
the Unitary Patent and of the Unified Patent Court.
Praising the long-standing
close co-operation between all partners, EPO President António Campinos stated:
„We’re now on the homestretch of preparations for the Unitary Patent package,
and our solid progress reflects the close co-operation between all partners. It
gives me great pleasure to see that we’ll soon deliver on the promise to bring
about the most important change in the European patent system since the EPO took
up its operations in 1977.“
Alexander
Ramsay, Chair of the Administrative Committee of the Unified Patent Court, underlined
that: „The first part of the provisional application period has seen a great deal
of effort from all involved. This has led to solid progress and the
organisation is now taking shape. We are now looking forward to going the last
mile together with partners such as the EPO to finalise this important European
project.““
Jérôme Debrulle,
Chair of the Select Committee, said: „In October 2021 the Select Committee
adopted an ambitious work programme to complete the implementation of Unitary Patent
protection. At the outset, we identified four main workstreams: the legal
framework, the financial framework, communication, and technical co-operation. By
the end of June 2022 the Select
Committee had completed its work programme and is now ready for the entry into operation
of the Unitary Patent system.“
The Unitary
Patent and the Unified Patent Court are the building blocks of the Unitary
Patent package, which will supplement and strengthen the existing centralised
European patent-granting system. Unitary patents will make it possible to
obtain uniform patent protection in participating EU member states that have
ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPC), by submitting a single
request to the EPO, offering patent holders simpler and more cost-effective
protection for their inventions.
The UPC will be
a common court of the participating member states with jurisdiction for infringement
and revocation actions concerning patents granted by the EPO. This specialised
court will make the Europe-wide enforcement of patents easier, offer greater
legal certainty and reduce costs resulting from litigation in multiple
jurisdictions.