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"EU Unified Patent Court"
Benoît Battistelli and Michael Barnier at the 2011 European Inventor Award ceremony
Yesterday the EPO News channel reported on a “renewed commitment to cost-efficient European patents” by the EPO and the European Commission. As nobody really had the slightest doubts on the continued and strong support by the project’s two main driving forces, this “news” does not sound that confident and persuasive as it apparenty was intended.
I cannot help, but to me it sounds more like political PR language or even autosuggestion if the President of the EPO, Benoît Battistelli, and the European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, Michel Barnier, jointly confess that “the unitary patent is [...] expected to simplify procedures and lower the costs for applicants by up to 70%“.
On September 20, 2011, the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union has filed Document 14191/11 titled Compatibility of the draft agreement on the Unified Patent Court with the Union acquis. It was classified “LIMITE” but after having filed a request on the basis of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents and the specific provisions concerning public access to Council documents set out in Annex II to the Council’s Rules of Procedure (Council Decision No 2009/937/EU, Official Journal L 325, 11.12.2009, p. 35) the General Secretariat has come to the conclusion that I may have access to this document. Hence, I expect this Document to become accessible in the Register very soon.
The Document conveys a non-paper from the Commission services who have analysed the compatibility of the draft agreement on the Unified Patent Court (UPC) with the Union acquis. In particular, they have checked the Draft against:
- Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (Brussels I)
- The Convention on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (Lugano Convention)
- Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I) and Regulation (EC) No 864/2007 on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations (Rome II)
- Regulation (EC) No 1206/2001 on cooperation between the courts of the Member States in the taking of evidence in civil or commercial matters
- Regulation (EC) No 1393/2007 on the service in the Member States of judicial and extrajudicial documents in civil or commercial matters
- Directive 2004/48/EC on the enforcement of intellectual property rights
As a general result the Commission services concluded that the relationship between the Brussels I Regulation and the draft agreement on the Unified Patent Court should be clarified in a particular way as suggested in the paper. The Commission services furtherrecall that the revision of the Brussels I Regulation is ongoing before the co-legislators. In addition, changes to the draft UPC Agreement should be made. It does not appear that issues of compatibility with other Union instruments would arise. A technical analysis of each of the provisions of the draft UPC Agreement should continue. It is clear that many procedural matters will need to be regulated in the rules of procedure.1 It is obvious that such rules will also need to comply with the relevant Union legislation. The UPC Agreement should clearly provide for this and foresee a mechanism how such compliance with the acquis may be ensured.
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