CIPA’s Daniel Chew: ‘We must dispel UPC myths’

This year marked a historic moment for the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) when it appointed Daniel Chew as its first Asian president.

As the year draws to a close, and before he assumes his new role in January, WIPR caught up with him to discuss why such visibility matters, the Unified Patent Court (UPC), and the challenges that lie ahead for patent attorneys.

Congratulations on your appointment. What will be your priorities when you begin as CIPA president?

There are a few things. My top priority for next year is to promote the rights of representation of UK attorneys at the UPC. While the UK isn’t a member of the UPC, the majority, if not all of our members—the European patent attorneys who have the appropriate qualifications—will be able to be representatives for parties before UPC.

UK attorneys can represent clients before the UPC, and there’s so much to do to dispel this myth that they can’t—with clients, the media, and others. So that is a challenge that’s going to be faced by UK patent professionals.

Imagine you are a US company: you’re looking at Europe, the UPC and the European Union, and it can be quite confusing.

But it is vital that they understand that UK-based patent attorneys can be representatives at the UPC.

So it’s important to engage and have conversations with IP organisations around the world to help them help their respective members understand this. And in my role as president, I will continue to do whatever I can to support this international liaison.

A delay to the sunrise period of the UPC has been confirmed. Given that CIPA called for a delay, how important is it that this happens to ensure smooth running when it does open its doors?

My understanding is there have been a number of challenges relating to IT. It is important to get those issues resolved, and to ensure that it works in all the countries where representatives reside, and that they have the opportunity to access the systems in time.