EU Patent Court to Launch in Spring '17, Official Predicts

Europe's Unified Patent Court (UPC) and Unitary Patent System (UPS) are expected to take effect in early 2017. For the UPC to take effect, the agreement must be ratified by 13 countries; nine countries have ratified thus far. While the new system is expected to be a positive change, it will undoubtedly bring about challenges as well. Bloomberg BNA contacted Finnegan attorney Martin D. Hyden for his thoughts on these challenges.

One challenge is that despite a unified system, national laws in each individual country will still be relevant. Issues such as taxation and ownership will be affected by national laws. Hyden said, "Several countries have tax benefits for patents, and there are questions about how those benefits will apply to a unitary patent and where the patent owner must reside to take advantage." He also noted that companies often use national boundaries to delineate the geographical scope of their licensing agreements. How a unitary patent can be divided up among various countries is still unclear and companies will need to review and update their existing licenses to make sure they will work with the unitary patent.