UPC announces late changes to opt-out functionality
Unified Patent Court temporarily removes some functionality from opt-out system for ‘privacy and security’ reasons | New guidance also given on registration of representatives.
The Unified Patent Court ( UPC) has announced late changes to the functionality of the case management system ( CMS), as well as registration of representatives.
The CMS’s application programming interface (API), which was put in place at the beginning of the sunrise period on March 1, is intended to allow the user’s own software to interact directly with the CMS’s back end in order for the user to opt-out or withdraw.
“In the week preceding the start of the sunrise period, it became clear to the UPC team that the public API designed to retrieve public documentation from the CMS could be misused in certain aspects,” said the UPC.
Due to “privacy and security reasons”, the UPC has decided to temporarily remove the ‘get document’ functionality. Even though this doesn’t affect the possibility to opt out, neither manually nor via APIs, it means that the API solution currently cannot be used for downloading receipts from the CMS, said the court.
“Unfortunately, this change had to be done on short notice and the possibility to provide a satisfactory prior warning to users was therefore limited.
“The UPC team is fully aware that the possibility to retrieve the opt-out receipt via an API solution is an important functionality for users who want to do bulk opt-outs and we are currently working hard to make the ‘get document’ functionality available again.”
A proposed solution, a minor change in the API, is currently being developed and tested internally.
The UPC envisaged that this can go into production on the CMS on March 23 “at the latest”. Prior to this, the required technical information will be provided to users by March 13, and the solution will be accessible in the UPC’s CERUS test environment from March 17.
Darren Smyth, partner and patent attorney at EIP in London, told WIPR: “It is extremely unfortunate, given the short amount of time available to file opt-outs during the sunrise period, that the API (realistically the only way to file large numbers of opt-outs) is not working as envisaged.
“If the delay is only a couple of weeks then it probably is manageable, but inconvenient.”
He explained that there are two ways of interacting with the UPC CMS. “You can enter as a user with the interface provided—you can file opt-outs that way but it gets pretty clunky with large numbers of cases. The API allows users to interact directly with the system without going through the regular interface (but you have to write your own code to do this).
“What they are saying is that the part of that which generates the reports (ie. confirms that the opt-out has been filed) is not currently working. So you can file the opt-out but you can’t get the confirmation that it has been done.”
Registration of representatives
The court has also provided guidance relating to the registration of UPC representatives.
It said it has received a large number of applications for registration, and that while applications under Article 48(2) of the UPC Agreement are being manually checked, it added that: “we are aiming to process the requests as fast as possible. Nevertheless, we cannot guarantee a date by which individual application checks will be completed.”
Provided there are successful checks, and regardless of the date of verification, the date for lodging applications will be the date of receipt; this is the date that will be entered in the register as the date of registration.
The UPC said there is nothing to prevent a representative from launching an opt-out application while his/her application to become a representative is pending the manual check. The representative, however, bears the full responsibility that he/she fulfils the requirement to be a representative according to the UPC Agreement and applicable EPLC (European Patent Litigation Certificate) Rules.
“We kindly ask representatives awaiting approval of their request not to contact staff of the court via the individual email addresses of said staff,” said the court. “You are primarily referred to the FAQ section of the court’s website. If the information you seek cannot be found there you are invited to contact the court via the request form and we will do our best to respond to your query in due time.”
Last month, Germany ratified the UPC Agreement, enabling the entry into force of the agreement. The UPC is set to begin operating on June 1, 2023.
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