epi provides Forum for sharing UPC CMS experiences and solutions

All users, including European Patent Attorneys, are preparing for the arrival of the new Unitary Patent (UP) / Unified Patent Court (UPC) system, which is expected to start early next year.

The UPC will be a fully digitalized court and will therefore communicate with its users only via its electronic Case Management System (CMS). This includes the activities that will be available during the sunrise period, such as filing or withdrawing of opt-out requests or requests to be registered as a representative with the new UPC for European Patent Attorneys with additional appropriate qualifications.

The UPC has decided to implement a strong authentication system, consisting of an electronic identity authentication certificate stored on a physical device plus a certificate for a qualified e-signature for the UPC CMS: Such certificates can only be provided by certain providers located in an EU country, also to residents outside the EU. Depending on one’s location and nationality, it is currently not straightforward to identify a suitable provider that would issue suitable UPC-CMS compliant certificates. The strong authentication system will become mandatory to access the test system as from mid-December.

epi would therefore like to offer a platform to its members for sharing information and tips related to how to obtain access to the UPC Case Management System using the strong authentication system. The Forum (preferably exclusively in English) will be moderated by volunteers from epi’s Litigation Committee and Online Communications Committee, but the information will come from the many users who are currently exploring the connexion and signature options.

Once you are logged in to the epi website you can find the dedicated ‘channels’ in the Forum here. Logged in members can subscribe or unsubscribe to the channel or sub-channels, to receive email alerts when new information is posted.

epi is also working closely with the UPC IT team to make them aware of any systematic problem encountered by its user community, in order to improve the practical application of the CMS. In that respect, the UPC IT management team has shared with us a status of investigations with different providers on meeting the UPC CMS requirements. The list has been published on the forum.

We would also like to make you aware of the practice period for the sunrise period activities that was announced by the UPC to start this week on 28. November (see The Unified Patent Court provides more information about the start of the Sunrise Test Practice Period from November 28 until December 16, 2022 | Unified Patent Court (unified-patent-court.org))

Peter R. Thomsen, Litigation Committee Chair
John Gray, Online Communications Committee Chair