Breaking News: Paris to get Central Division, London and Munich to get "branches"

The AmeriKat surprised by today's
unconfirmed news
Although unconfirmed by the AmeriKat as yet, she has been alerted to the following article in the German newspaper Handelsblatt which announced over an hour ago that the proposed Central Division of the Unified Patent Court is to be located in Paris. The AmeriKat understands, from several unconfirmed reports, that the President's Office and Registry are also to be housed in Paris. London and Munich also fair well from the apparent agreement. They both are to receive "branches" with London reported to obtain cases dealing with the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries and Munich to deal with cases concerning the automotive industry. The AmeriKat muses that Paris must get telecoms cases...Munich is also set to deal with "administrative" issues, which one can only guess what that includes. The article in Handelsblatt refers to President van Rompuy as stating that
"This compromise makes clear the way for a single European patent, and that will save money and be a boost for innovation."
As the AmeriKat reiterates, this is all unconfirmed but she expects some clarification over the next few hours and indeed tomorrow which marks the start of the European Summit.

If readers have any further information, please do let her know. Otherwise she will see you tonight at this year's Annual Sir Hugh Laddie Lecture where Chief Judge Rader will be speaking on the apropos topic of the internationalization of IP law.
Breaking News: Paris to get Central Division, London and Munich to get "branches" Breaking News: Paris to get Central Division, London and Munich to get "branches" Reviewed by Annsley Merelle Ward on Wednesday, June 27, 2012 Rating: 5

9 comments:

  1. The Khaleej Times is reporting AFP:

    "EU president Herman Van Rompuy will attempt to break a 40-year deadlock over a single European patent by offering Paris the seat of a new EU trademark court..."

    Which is, of course, huge and surprising news but there is no word on the Patent Court.

    http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/international/2012/June/international_June584.xml&section=international

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  2. Well that should ensure an ever-increasing flow of cases up to the CJEU, required to resolve the conflicting positions, on points of substantive law, that come to be taken by the judges of the Central Division in their separate Paris, Munich and London Chambers.

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  3. This is a real "European solution".

    Create a Central Division of a Unitary Patent Court and them de-centralise it by splitting it up into three "branches" in different countries.

    I call that a foul compromise with bad consequences to be expected... I start to feel rather positive about the European Court of Justice being involved as this at least will ensure some kind of uniform case law.

    Or will the legal members of the Boards travel from Paris/Munich/London in order to keep their technical fellow members decision in a "straight legal line" :-) ?

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  4. Has anyone thought about Greenland?

    It even has an eco-friendly ring to it.

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  5. I must say I did enjoy the mention above of a "foul compromise".

    I think it comes from the German enthusiasm to dismiss every "Kompromiss" as "faul", and from the pleasure a native German speaker would derive, in adopting in the place of the ubiquitous "faul" the handy English word "foul".

    Mind you, here, the English word might just turn out to be even more of a fit than the German one.

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  6. It will be interesting to see whether it is actually the "solution" adopted or is merely a further negotiating proposal put forward in an attempt to bounce the participating states into accepting a compromise. [e.g. on the lines of earlier statements that the only remaining issue is the location of the seat].

    Just as a camel is a horse designed by a committee, are we going to see the birth of a three-humped camel?

    Dromedary, Bactrian, Eupolitical?

    If this goes ahead: Shame! Shame! Shame!

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  7. This is ridiculous and once again clear proof that the politicians in charge have no clue what they're talking about. How many pan-European cases concerning automotive patents have there been in the past? While the attractive pharma and telecom cases would go to London and Paris, Munich would merely get peanuts. The idea of a "trifurcation" is as inacceptable as this allocation of cases.

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  8. Yep, Munich gets peanuts and the remaining 31 EPC capital cities get what? Peanut shells? This is a tri-court for a tri-patent in a tri-language system.

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  9. Actually, I rather thought that Munich for mech eng, Paris for EE and London for pharma was pretty neat thinking. The chemists do obviousness different from the enginners, and have a particular need for English fact-finding processes. Engineering cases are often small, and need fast injunctive relief, while pharma are often blockbuster cases for which English law is well-suited.

    Frankly, what worried me was the ignorant uneducated CJEU fxxxing up on appeal 30 years of brilliant, crystal clear (in comparison with the substantive patent law outside Europe) work product from the EPO. Politicians simply do not understand how much precious legal certainty we now have in Europe on substantive patent law, and how vital that high degree of certainty is, to innovation investment in Europe. Let's not throw it all away.

    ReplyDelete

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