News

On 22 January 2016, EPLIT will run a mock-trial under the 18th draft of the Rules of Procedure for the Unified Patent Court (UPC). The case to be tried is between Improver Corporation and Remington Consumer Products and concerns a depilatory device, better known as the “Epilady” case. This case was litigated in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s before various national courts in Europe with drastically different outcomes. For that reason it serves as a reminder of why further harmonization of patent litigation in Europe is a worthy cause. The mock-trial will be staged before the Local Division of the UPC in Munich.

In 2016 epi will start a series of one day seminars on the Unitary Patent (UP) and the Unified Patent Court (UPC). The seminars will take place in 2016 and early 2017.
The seminars will provide knowledge of both systems to allow epi members to work with the systems and to advise clients on strategic choices, for example on opting out of the UPC, and UP versus classical individual state validation.

epi Seminar on the Occasion of the 79th Council Meeting in Cologne

On 13 November, the epi offered a seminar in Cologne in the margins of its 79th Council Meeting. The seminar was open to all epi members and was intended to facilitate an exchange between the Council members and the local patent community.

On 9 October 2015, epi President Tony Tangena attended a symposium in Lyon on the occasion of 30 years cooperation between the EPO and SIPO, China’s State Intellectual Property Office.

The last meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the UPC was held in Sweden on 19 October 2015. At this meeting, the 18th draft of the Rules of Procedure was adopted. For more information, please visit the website of the Preparatory Committee.