UPDATE: Seat of future Unified Patent Court set to be agreed on Monday

Mr Waldemar Pawlak

According to the Memo and Agenda for the Competitiveness Council's  meeting on Monday, 5 December 2011 in Brussels, published this afternoon, the Polish Presidency will be putting forward for agreement the seat of the Unified Patent Court.  On Monday, members will try to obtain political agreement on this and the draft text and provisions on unitary patent protection (see earlier AmeriKat post here).   The meeting will be chaired by Mr. Waldemar Pawlak, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy for Poland and Ms. Barbara Kudrycka, Minister of Science and Higher Education of Poland.

On Monday morning at 9:30am there will be a policy debate on the proposal for the regulation implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of (1) the creation of unitary patent protection and (2)  the applicable translation arrangements . This has been classified under “legislative deliberations”.

Memo 11/364, also published on the website this afternoon, describes the background of each of Monday's scheduled debates:

"As part of the Single Market Act (IP/11/469) tabled on 13 April 2011, the European Commission presented two legislative proposals (IP/11/470) under the enhanced cooperation procedure to reduce the cost of patents in Europe by up to 80%. Once adopted, they would allow any company or individual to protect their inventions through a single European patent which would be valid in 25 Member States. The proposed regulations lay down the terms and conditions for obtaining unitary patent protection, its legal effects and the applicable translation arrangements.   

In June, the Competitiveness Council reached a political agreement on the texts of both legislative proposals. Intensive discussions with the co-legislator - European Parliament - followed. Commissioner Barnier calls on the Competitiveness Council to approve the final compromise texts as agreed in informal discussions with the Parliament and to prepare the file for final adoption in 2012."

Also on Monday, under “non-legislative deliberations” there is a further policy debate regarding the draft agreement on the Unified Patent Court and draft statute.  The Memo explained:

"Currently, patent litigation in Europe is fragmented and expensive: national patent courts only decide about the validity of European patents in relation to their territory and a patent owner needs to start court proceedings in a number of different courts in order to enforce his/her European patent on the same invention throughout Europe. This creates unnecessary costs as well as legal uncertainty. 

The Member States, together with the Commission, are determined to deliver a more cost effective, user friendly and legally secure patent system for Europe have decided to find an appropriate solution for the setting up of the Unified Patent Court as quickly as possible. 

The Polish Presidency has given high priority to the whole of the patent reform and has worked intensively to find agreement among the Member States on the setting up of a unified patent litigation system. In September, the Competitiveness Council agreed on the basic features of the Unified Patent Court and urged further progress on the remaining issues.  

The AmeriKat warming the seat
for the Unified Patent Court

At the Council on 5 December, the Polish Presidency will present for agreement a number of outstanding, politically sensitive issues including the seat of the future Unified Patent Court, financing principles, language of proceedings, the transitional period and the revision clause. An agreement on these issues would allow further work to advance on finding an overall political agreement on the whole of the patent reform by the end of this year. 

Commissioner Barnier welcomes the Polish Presidency's determination to reach political agreement on the whole of the patent reform so that new sources of growth for the European economy can be delivered through substantially reducing the costs and complexity of the European patent system. Any solution needs to be in the interest of the users of the patent system."

What the AmeriKat hopes
that the seat of the Unified
Patent Court will look like

Following calls from UK lawyers, legal associations and industry, including a letter by the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA)'s President Tim Roberts published in today's London Times, the AmeriKat understands that today the UK has put in its bid for London to host the Central Division of the Unified Patent Court. The AmeriKat considers this to be a welcome and positive sign from Her Majesty's Government in the unitary patent fiasco and is hopefully indicative of the growing belief that the UK Government and Baroness Wilcox will be voicing the UK's interests and concerns regarding the proposed system; concerns that other Member States may share (i.e. such as the speed which this agreement is being rushed through). In any event, it seems that the UK government has listened to the UK's patent profession and will now hopefully be preparing itself for Monday's debate...

According to the Scotsman, we may also see a late entry in from Scotland (thanks to a dear IPKat friend for alerting the Kat to the news).  But for now, the sound you now hear is the thousands of patent lawyers, academics, judges and Kats across Europe holding their breath....

For those who enjoy the luxury of their own office, one can watch the press conference and public deliberations on Monday here and video coverage of the event here.  Now, the AmeriKat is finally going to rest...