The Unified Patent Court Committees Have Hit the Ground Running

The European Union has recently taken steps to integrate the Unified Patent Court (UPC) into their judicial system by getting the first few committee meetings underway, appointing judges, and adopting human resource standards for the Court. These are small steps which will lead to big advancements for patent proprietors in Europe, making it easier to enforce patents across borders in the European Union.

Over the last year, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Committees have taken significant steps towards offering patent owners economical options for patent enforcement and dispute resolution. As of January 19, 2022, when the Protocol on Provisional Application of the UPC Agreement was recorded, the UPC became an official international organization. The UPC was set up to avoid controversy between Unified Patents and “traditional” European patents.

“European patent” enforcement is not as swift as it may sound. Before the UPC, each European country enforced patents on an individual basis. If a patent proprietor wanted to enforce their patent in multiple countries without filing multiple patent applications, they had the option to file a “European Patent Application.” But once the application was accepted, patents still had to be enforced on an individual basis. This system had the potential to generate legal uncertainty, high costs of enforcement, and conflicting opinions in each jurisdiction. The UPC solves this problem.

Moving forward, the UPC will have exclusive jurisdiction for litigation of Unitary Patents and European patents to streamline patent protection across 24 countries. The Court includes a Court of First Instance, a Court of Appeal and a Registry, as well as a Patent Arbitration and Mediation Centre and a Training Center.

The UPC consists of three governing committees:

-       The Administrative Committee;

-       The Budget Committee; and

-       The Advisory Committee.

These committees take on a range of duties to ensure that selected judges are of the highest quality, administrative functions run regularly, and all regulations are employed to smoothly transition from the European Patent to the Unitary Patent process.

The Administrative Committee is responsible for appointing judges and adopting rules and regulations of the Court. The Administrative Committee is also responsible for appointing the members of the Advisory Committee, whom they selected at their February meeting. In their second meeting, representatives from each Member State, as well as relevant observers, met in Luxembourg and adopted the UPC’s general court rules, such as the Court’s Rules of Procedure, Table of Fees, and Rules of “on-duty travel,” which incentivize low-carbon emission modes of transportation. Additionally, the meeting paved the way for future employees by adopting human resource benefits for staff and officials of the Court. The Administrative Committee has also created a list of possible judicial candidates, which was adopted in the late spring. The meeting consisted of observers like the European Commission, The Confederation of European Business, the Economic Policy Institute, the European Patent Lawyers Association, and the European Patent Litigators Association. Local and regional divisions of the Court of First Instance were established as well, with divisions in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, and Portugal.

The Budget Committee oversees the Court’s budget. The Budget Committee met in Luxembourg in March for its inaugural meeting, where it adopted Rules of Procedure, budget for the period of provisional applications, and a workplan for the following months. Now that the budget has been adopted, the Member States are required to pay their first contributions and finalize the integration of the Court.

The Advisory Committee’s main task is to interview candidate judges for the Court. The interview process began in March, after the Advisory Committee’s inaugural meeting at the end of February. Interviews spanned from March until May, and now, selected judges will be appointed by the Administrative Committee to the newly established divisions of the Court.

These divisions are expected to begin taking cases in late 2022 or earlier 2023. Patent proprietors will soon be able to enforce European-wide decisions, injunctions, and damages to incentivize innovation via patents throughout Europe, with world-wide effects.