The Last Miles, or still edging along? Patent reform in Europe

Edging along ...

A couple of days ago, in "Edging towards the new regime for Europe: a report on the EPLIT Meeting", the PatLit weblog hosted a report by Katfriend and veteran patent litigator Chris Ryan on last week's meeting in Paris of the still little-known European Patent Litigators Association (EPLIT). This meeting was, according to Chris, an extremely productive and informative one. Following an update by Margot Fröhlinger (Principal Director, EPO) on the unitary patent and unified patent court, the EPLIT meeting turned to issues concerning the draft Rules on the European Patent Litigation Certificate, the unclear and potentially unfair rules on "grandfathering" of practitioners without litigation certificates in the representation of clients before the new courts, the assessment of court fees based on the estimated value of the litigation [to this Kat, such an assessment sounds like a perfect recipe for a headache], the recoverability of costs and the training of technically qualified judges.  There was also a presentation by Max Brunner (Ministry of Justice, France) on the project planning for the establishment of the unified patent court's French Central Division -- an exercise which is apparently most impressive, given the large number of uncertainties and variables that have to be taken into consideration.

... or coming up to the finishing line?

With all these issues preoccupying the minds of European patent litigators, the timing of Premier Cercle's forthcoming conference, "Unitary Patent & Unified Patent Court 2015: The Last Miles", could scarcely be better. It takes place on Thursday 16 July and will be held in the eye of the storm, as it were, in the Munich headquarters of the European Patent Office. The speakers  -- apart from Margot Fröhlinger -- include Benoît Battistelli (EPO President), former Court of Justice of the European Union and Irish Supreme Court judge Fidelma Macken, Alain Girardet (Cour de Cassation, France), Cornelis Schüller  (Nestec SA), Ulrike Voß (Oberlandesgericht, Düsseldorf), Robert van Peursem (Advocate-General, Hoge Raad, The Netherlands), Lord Justice Kitchin (Court of Appeal, England and Wales) and Catriona Hammer (Senior IP Counsel, GE Healthcare. It's a good cast, ranging from those whose commitment to the new European patent package is deep and unwavering to those who are less enthusiastic and more critical.

"We have ways of making you talk. Now, how
will the rules on representation work ...?"

This Kat hopes that those who attend will make every effort to squeeze the most out of the speakers in the Q and A sessions, since one of the things he finds frustrating about the whole exercise of re-creating Europe's patent litigation environment is the number of times, when asking questions, the answer is either an "I don't know" or a confidently-delivered mini-speech which can be précised as either "it all depends" or "we won't know till we get there".  If this conference is truly to be "The Last Miles", as the organisers suggest, and not merely "Edging towards the new regime" as the title of the PatLit blogpost suggests, we must pool our collective ignorance and uncertainty and see how much of it can be eliminated by sharing and explaining the bits we do know.

The website for this event (Premier Cercle's third annual event on this theme), with all the usual details of speakers and registration, can be found here. Refreshingly, this event does not cost an arm and a leg: the full registration fee is only 300 euro (which comes down to just 190 euro if you opt for early bird registration by 24 June).