< Back to latest news & events

UPC

UPC ratification and Article 50 – what next?

April 2017

Will the ratification of the UPCA by the UK be affected by triggering Article 50? Apparently not.

The latest news we have below from UKIPO UPC Taskforce was received on 31st March, after Article 50 was triggered. They report to be “fully on track” for the court to be operational in December 2017. There has been lots of discussion around the role of the CJEU for referrals from the UPC, but there is an argument that the UPC will be an international Court, albeit located partially in UK territory – so this doesn’t seem to be a reason to delay UK ratification.

German ratification is also advanced, with the final law approved, so formalities/signatures for ratification are all that remains.

Technically, either Germany or the UK will need to “hold off” formal ratification until the end of July, as the system will enter into force on the first day of the fourth month after Germany or the UK deposit their instrument of ratification or accession (as 12 other states have already ratified, and 13 signatures are needed, which must include UK, France and Germany).

Please see below the latest news update on UPC implementation.

Interim Team Meeting

The Interim Team of the Preparatory Committee met on Wednesday 29th March, at the UPC Court of Appeal building in Luxembourg. The team has 5 sub-groups each tasked with making final practical arrangements for the court to come into operation. A new group has been formed within the Interim Team to ensure the court will have appropriate corporate functions, such as HR and IT departments, when it opens. All sub-groups are making good progress. Some noticeable highlights include:

  • The HR team reported readiness to proceed with the judicial recruitment process once provisional application has started.
  • The Finance team held fruitful discussions with the HR team which will help them to refine the provisional budget for the Court. Work is also underway on preparing the budget for next year.
  • The Registry and IT teams also held useful joint discussions to ensure the Case Management System (CMS) and Registry procedures are fully compatible. User Acceptance Testing of the CMS is expect to start soon.

The next meeting of the Interim Team will be in Berlin on 25th April. Between now and then work will continue on all work streams.

UK Preparations

There has been some speculation this week about the UK’s timetable for ratification of the Agreement. As reported in Managing IP on 30th March, “we are fully on track to commence the provisional application period and ratify the UP Agreement according to the Preparatory Committee’s timetable (i.e. provisional application in May and court operational in December 2017). We expect the legislation on privileges and immunities to be ready to lay after Easter. I will keep you posted on further developments as they occur. In the meantime, if you have any questions please do get in touch”. (From the UKIPO Unified Patent Court Taskforce).

Latest updates

Polymorphs: Clearing the Inventive Step Hurdle at the European Patent Office (EPO)

Polymorphic forms of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can represent commercially valuable compound subject matter and can be critical to providing necessary drug product characteristics and performance. However, patenting polymorphs is …

Read article

IQPC Global US Exchange

HGF are proud ‘Silver Plus’ sponsors of the IQPC Global US Exchange, at the Austin Marriot South, Texas. The IQPC Global US Exchange will be held at the Austin Marriot …

Read article

Update on the Precision Breeding Act 2023: details emerge of the new simplified regulatory pathway for gene edited plant and animal derived food and feed products

The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 could come into force as early as spring 2025. It empowers the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to create a new simplified regulatory pathway …

Read article

Court of Appeal Decision Upholds Invalidity of Patent Due to Amendment Identifying Embodiment as Outside the Scope of the Claims

In a case that highlights the challenges arising due to post-grant amendments, and in particular interpretation of the claims in view of the description, the Court of Appeal in Ensygnia …

Read article

UPC Court of Appeal clarifies approach for interpreting claims with “obvious” errors

Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v Samsung Bioepis NL B.V. [UPC_CoA_402/2024] –Court of Appeal of the UPC (Grabinski, Blok, Gougé, Enderlin, Hedberg) – 20 December 2024 Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v Amgen Technology …

Read article

IP Ingredients: Winter Case Law Review 2024

As the nights draw in and the frenzy to finish everything off before the holiday season reaches its peak, it’s time to take a break, grab your favourite hot beverage …

Read article