Welcome to London: Home of the Unified Patent Court?

London often looks like this
after a couple of pints of Badger

Readers will have noted Merpel’s fuzzy little head popping up yesterday, speculating on which meritorious location will house the new Unified Patent Court. Like Merpel, the AmeriKat’s limited time for idle speculation has also been focused on its whereabouts. Merpel and the IPKat, being consummate Europeans, do try to be diplomatic and discreet in what they say. The AmeriKat however is under no such constraints. As an American who is proud of her constitutional heritage of Freedom of Speech, and as a happy outsider who has settled comfortably into the United States of Europe, she is more inclined to throw caution to the wind and tell it the way she sees it. And what does she say? Why, there is only one obvious choice, her very own adopted home -- London!

Many cricket games now last longer
than Patent Court hearings ...

The AmeriKat’s whiskers sense that some dear readers are now up in arms at such a statement. “It's expensive! Its anti-patent! Its…its…well, its English!” she hears you say. If that is the extent of the opposition against London, the AmeriKat need not invest much energy in countering such meritless arguments. Yes, it's true - the weather has schizophrenic qualities, the English emotional stoicism can be impenetrable and the whole cricket thing remains shrouded in mystery. But these peculiarities add only charm to the numerous concrete signposts that point to London being the only obvious and logical home of the new Unified Patent Court.


1. Already the patent litigant’s venue of choice

The choice of a woman to hold
the Scales of Justice reflects
national policy on Equal
Opportunities

Whether a patentee or an infringer, parties contemplating a visit to court will usually try to avoid litigating in a jurisdiction where they are destined to lose. In such jurisdictions you would expect to see the number of patent cases to be few. The sheer number of patent cases filtering through the UK courts in the past several years debunks the antiquated (and exaggerated) myth that the UK and the UK courts were/are anti-patent. A quick glance over the reported Patents Court cases in the past five years in fact shows that, of the cases reaching the main IP court, a substantial majority are patent cases -- an the proportion of cases in which patent owners have succeeded has risen too.

In the intervening years, pending the adoption of a Community patent, where litigants have had a choice of forum, the UK courts have become the obvious venue of choice for litigants and practitioners -- European and foreign alike. The choice has been justified by litigants who point to the impartial court system (see below), the equal weight afforded to patentees and defendants, the high quality decisions and the speed of the system and litigation support, leading from trial to first instance judgment in 6-12 months.


2. It has the people


Besides New York (which is sadly not an option), London is the largest and most important financial market in the world. Say what you want about the current state of affairs in the world’s financial markets but, where there is strong financial center, therein follows innovation and expertise – expertise that is found in the UK’s judiciary, its experienced practitioners, and litigation support services.

After a busy day in court, judges
amuse themselves by playing
dressing-up games

The UK’s judiciary is respected throughout the world for its independence, experience and skill and -- unlike some civil law systems -- there is no career judiciary in the UK. British judges, and especially the IP-specialist judges, are recruited from the cream of the country's senior legal practitioners; the IP judges' resumes speak for themselves, showing their legal and technical qualifications (the majority have a background in the sciences, enabling them to quickly tackle complex patent issues - see here, here, here , here, and here). London is also home to the biggest international law firms and European headquarters of the world’s biggest companies and patent holders. As such, London has become Europe’s largest legal center and with it ,an all-encompassing and extensive network of litigation support services. You can barely walk down Chancery Lane without tripping over gaggles of transcribers or experts (it is a gaggle of transcribers, right?). (picture, left - our esteemed Supreme Court judges)


3. It has the venue

Called the Rolls Building because
IP litigation literally rolls along ...

Under Article 5(1a) of the Working Document that establishes the Court of First Instance (and presumably Articles 7 and 8, which set up the Court of Appeal and Registry), it states that the host Member State "shall provide the necessary facilities for that purpose." Well, you are in luck, because this Fall the new dedicated business court opened on Fetter Lane – a hop and skip away from the Royal Courts of Justice. The new state-of-the art Rolls Building (picture, right) is the biggest dedicated business court in the world – reportedly 4 times the magnitude of its nearest competitor. It houses the Commercial Court and the Patents Court, includes 31 courtrooms, 12 hearing rooms, 44 public consultation rooms and ample (almost cavernous) waiting facilities. The Court is also spearheading new e-filing systems (Article 25 of the Working Draft).

As to be expected with any new building, there were some initial teething problems, but the venue is ready to go, should the Unified Patent Court find a home in London -- avoiding unnecessary costs and long delays in getting Europe's new, streamlined patent system up and running. Good litigators knows that avoiding unnecessary costs and delays should always be the main objective in everything they do, especially in establishing the new court system.


4. It has the location

If you are travelling from Silicon Valley or Sydney to attend a court hearing in the Unified Patent Court, do you want one non-stop flight or a three-leg journey to your destination? If you miss your flight, do you want to have to wait a day for the next flight? Thought so . ..! London is undoubtedly the world’s best connected city. Its five international airports see 5,000 international flights departing to 200 destinations, 10,000 incoming flights a week and 100 million passengers a year. How many direct flights are there from Alicante or Munich to destinations such as Cork, Billund, Kaunas, Poznan ..

British ingenuity solves great
problems, like "where do you
put the bathrooms in a building
made of glass?"

London attracts 30 million visitors a year and, as such, the AmeriKat need not get into the merits of the food (excellent -- now that it mainly comes from India, China, France, Italy, Thailand ...), the shopping (amazing) and cultural activities (incredible). Hotels are numerous and span the gambit of price ranges – true you will be paying a pretty penny if you choose to stay at the Chancery Court Hotel, but if you choose to stay at the numerous other hotels in the area, you are looking at hotel room prices for less than you find in comparable locations on the Continent. You can even pitch your own tent outside centrally-located St Paul's Cathedral at no cost at all.

5. Dispelling the misconceptions

The pound sterling: still
worth more than its cousin
the euro

“Maybe, but its so expensive…”, the AmeriKat hears you say. Unless you are planning to purchase a property in Chelsea, shop at Whole Foods and send your child to Eton, the expense factor is a misconception. The charge-out rates by UK-based firms are comparable to similar practitioners in other countries. Litigation costs in the UK have been the focus of intensive judicial and governmental review and supervision over the past several years. The new and improved Patents County Court is the feather in the hat of low costs IP litigation in the UK. Further, given that most everyone and everything a patent litigant needs is already in London, considerable expense is saved from shipping people, expertise and papers out to some unascertained location.


6. A few more reasons

A London-based Unified Patent Court is also politically advantageous for the UK and for Europe. The AmeriKat will not venture down the road of European politics (she cannot vote in UK or in EU elections so is neutral on this point) but, suffice to say, she agrees with the comment by "anonymous at 13:33" on Merpel's post (here). Unlike countries such as Italy and Spain, the UK has been ready and willing to engage in a Unified Patent System for a while and, unlike Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium etc, the UK does not host an EU IP institution. Some say that, because Italy and Spain are reluctant to participate in the scheme as it stands, the court should go to one of them as an encouragement to them to commit. Willingness (or reluctance) to be involved in the system and process is not the litmus test, nor should it be a deciding factor for the appropriate venue for the court. The decision should be based on merit and the ability for the seat to meet the goals of an effective Unified Patent system and court as identified in the Working Draft's Recitals. (picture, left - the UK's most famous cat, besides the IPKat)




London already has everything and everyone that is needed to run an effective Unified Patent Court. All you need to bring is an umbrella ...