Patent Conference 2015: Good judiciary ‘vital’ to UPC success
The most important factor in the success of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) will be the quality of its judiciary, a lawyer speaking at an industry event has argued.
Graham Burnett-Hall, partner at trademark and patent attorneys Marks & Clerk, gave an update on the state of the UPC at the Patent Conference 2015. It is being hosted in London today, June 11, by Thomson Reuters and legal publisher Sweet & Maxwell.
Identifying what will lead to the UPC’s success, Burnett-Hall said that “without good judges, it won’t be used”, before adding that he is “extremely confident” that the UPC will have the best judges.
But he said he fears that the UPC’s implementation will be delayed by a number of factors, namely the creation of its IT system. The task is a “huge endeavour”, he said, and will inevitably see implementation “slip back because of the considerable amount of time to put it into place”.
Furthermore, Burnett-Hall said the Conservative Party will want to avoid “antagonising” some of its members by not continuing with plans to ratify the UPC agreement.
On Tuesday, June 9, the House of Commons passed the European Union Referendum Bill 2015-16, meaning the UK population will vote on whether the country should remain a member of the EU. The referendum is due to take place before the end of 2017.
The bill is now with the House of Lords.
Finally, Burnett-Hall argued that he is not persuaded by the argument that the high renewal fees will put patent owners off from applying for a unitary patent. He said the example of the Community trademark’s success has shown that intellectual property owners have been “prepared to a pay a bit more” for protection across all EU member states.
He added that for “political reasons” the “fee scale will be adjusted” should the take-up among patent owners be quite low.
For the UPC to come into effect, 13 member states, including the UK, France and Germany, have to ratify the agreement. So far seven nations have ratified the UPC, with Luxembourg being the latest country to join.
