The Unified Patent Court and the UK. A Glimmer of Hope for a Softish Brexit?
Monday 13 March 2017
6.30 - 8 pm, followed by drinks
The River Room, King's College London, Strand Campus
CPD accredited with 1.5 points
This event is organised by the United Kingdom Association for European Law, and features three speakers who will be familiar to IPKat readers:
Dr Christopher Stothers, partner at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP
Dr Luke McDonagh, Lecturer in The City Law School at City, University of London
Prof Duncan Matthews, Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London
The event is not quite free - UKAEL members £15, general public £25, students £5.
More information and booking details can be found here.
UNION-IP
The next UNION-IP event is the spring dinner meeting on Tuesday 28th March. You can see the flier here, but in brief:
UNION-IP is delighted to announce that Ravi Srinivasan (JA Kemp) and Juergen Dressel (Novartis) will be speaking at their spring dinner meeting on Tuesday 28 March 2017. The topic of the evening will be one of the major live topics in Life Sciences and Pharmaceuticals IP: the issue of Second Medical Use Patents. Following interventions from the EPO and the high profile Lyrica litigation in the last couple of years, and amidst concerns from many observers about the state of the current law, Ravi and Juergen will be able to present both legal and commercial views on where this topic may lead us next.
Am I to conclude that the Kat has lost its tongue on the UPC?
ReplyDeleteMy previous enquiry on this point (http://ipkitten.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/mini-upc-update-uk-signs-protocol-on.html?showComment=1486978703716#c3870820495469588050) elicited no response.
Now it appears that there has been further discussion of the UPC in the media.
http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2017/02/28/patent-law-theresa-may-s-new-brexit-battlefield
Jo Johnson has also formally admitted that the UPC Agreement is "currently only open to EU member states".
http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?house=commons%2Clords&max=20&member=1527&page=1&questiontype=AllQuestions
Maybe I can accept that none of this is "big" news in the IP world. However, I am struck by the curious lack of commentary (both here and in the "mainstream" media, even including rabidly pro-Brexit papers such as the Daily Mail) on issues raised by the UPC, such as how on earth the UK can stay in the UPC... or even how the UPC can be made to function, post-Brexit.
I have heard some hand-waving bluster from various individuals on this point, but nothing whatsoever in the way of serious, reasoned and robust analysis. With the UK seemingly intent on signing up to a venture that will lead us all into the unknown (and potentially on a very bumpy ride for patentees and interested 3rd parties), I find the lack of analysis on this point very troubling indeed.
Not being someone who is prone to believe in conspiracies, I would like to think that there is no self-censorship going on at IPKat on this issue. But it would be nice to have some evidence to support this belief.
The whole game is to ratify without a new discussion in Parliament before the end of March.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing to see how happily the whole profession, or at least the high proponents of the UPC in UK, are going into the wall.
ReplyDeleteThat even the new responsible for IP in the UK government acknowledges that UK cannot participate in the UPC after Brexit, is revealing. And yet, that ratification should take place is flabbergasting.
How can a professional representative in all honesty advise his client not to opt out whilst the situation of UK post Brexit is so unclear as far as the UPC is concerned. He can, but only if he thinks of his purse and not of the interest of his client.
What we see here is a perfect example of what lobbying can achieve!
Talking of (self-)censorship on IPKat, there seems to have been a bit of an inexplicable time lapse in posting my 4 March response to zoobab.
ReplyDeleteIn essence, I agree with Observer.