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30 June 2017Patents

IP counsels on the fence over unitary patent: RWS inovia

IP counsels remain on the fence over whether their companies will use the unitary patent when it comes into force.

This is the finding of a report by RWS inovia, a patent filing, IP translation and patent search service provider, released on Wednesday, June 28.

The unitary patent will provide protection throughout signatory EU member states, while disputes will be handled by a specialist patent court system across the EU, the Unified Patent Court (UPC).

More than 115 respondents who are involved in the IP strategy of their companies and universities took part in RWS inovia’s survey.

Nearly half (47%) of the respondents remain undecided over whether they will use the unitary patent.

“This is a very high proportion for a system that has been in the works for four decades,” said RWS inovia, adding that it suspects that the “high degree of uncertainty relates to the untested nature of both the patent system and the courts”.

The introduction of the UPC has been delayed by the German Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht), which has held up the process because of a constitutional complaint.

“If the UK ultimately decides against ratification of the UPC Agreement, 12% of respondents stated they won’t take advantage, while the majority of respondents (80%) still plan to file via this route,” says the report.

The report also highlighted that international patent filing has continued to rise for global patent owners, particularly in the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, and China).

Nearly 90% of respondents stated that they have filed patents in at least one of these countries within the last five years.

In the US, respondents noted a few concerns: the overall low state of patent quality, the impact of the America Invents Act (AIA) and post-grant challenges, with the change from first-to-invent to first-to-file.

Justin Simpson, Founder of the inovia platform, RWS inovia, stated that while it was generally seen as a positive, the AIA has created some uncertainty.

“As some US applicants sought to avoid some of the AIA’s tighter patenting rules, they filed many applications ahead of the AIA’s start date (March 2013); 30 months later, the international community received a flood of applications corresponding to those pre-AIA cases,” he said.

“Our IP trends survey shows that filing trends are back to normal, with monthly filing statistics across the globe at a stable level, with solid increases across all statistics during 2016.”

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