WIPR survey: Brexit, UPC and Trump are biggest IP topics for 2017
The UK’s exit from the EU, its ratification of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement, and Donald’s Trump presidency are the most important intellectual pr operty developments expected in 2017.
This is according to a recent WIPR survey that asked readers to select the top five IP developments for the year ahead.
Unsurprisingly, Brexit was ranked highly, with 92% of readers selecting the development. The full consequences of this decision remain to be seen.
Additionally, the UK government’s announcement that it will ratify the UPC Agreement, in a move that could signal the direction of Brexit, ranked highly.
The impact of the appointment of President-elect Trump, who will take office on January 20, also ranked highly, with 61% of readers selecting this option.
He has already announced plans to withdraw the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership on his first day in the White House.
Around one-quarter of readers also thought that the European Patent Office’s industrial disputes will play a role in 2017.
“It is amazing that the EPO industrial dispute isn't getting more coverage,” said one reader.
The reader added that they expected “a disgruntled patentee or opponent to petition one or more national courts to ignore a decision of an EPO board of appeal on the basis that all decisions of the boards lack independence and are unenforceable”.
In the US, other IP developments included disparaging trademarks in the case of Lee v Tam, the implications of Alice v CLS Bank on software patents, and patent venues (TC Heartland v Kraft Foods).
Other hot topics were Patent Prosecution Highways, trademark squatting in China, and EU trademark reforms.
For this week’s survey, we ask: Last week, WIPR reported that the full US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has agreed to assess whether judicial review is available for a patent owner to challenge PTAB determinations that say inter partes review petitions satisfy the timeliness requirement. Should judicial review be allowed in instances like this?
