At the end of this month, on 31 October 2024, the USPTO will begin operating under the a rule governing the process for Director Review of proceedings under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA).

As has been discussed, Article 7 of the Unified Patent Court Agreement states that the Central Division shall have its seat in Paris with sections in Munich and London. After Brexit, the United Kingdom withdrew from the Unified Patent Court (UPC) and the UPC needed to relocate the London Section.

At the European Patent Office (EPO) the non-obviousness of an invention is established by application of the problem-solution approach. This approach takes up an analysis of what benefit of benefits are being delivered by the invention and requires one to identify a technical effect that is achieved by the claimed invention.

The start of the Sunrise Period, which is the beginning phase of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) during which holders of European Patents can file to opt-out these patents from the jurisdiction of the UPC, has been postponed for two months.

The Unified Patent Court committee just announced a proposed start date of 1 April 2022 and a related schedule that cascades to and from that start date.

We are happy to note that starting in October of 2022 and running through June of 2023, we will attend the CEIPI diploma program on European Patent Litigation and the new Unified Patent Court at the University of Strasbourg, for the Diploma Patent Litigation in Europe.

The EPO conference of 23 June 2022 about adapting the disclosure was on-line and well attended The panelists were deeply experienced and included Justices Matthias Ziggan of the Munich regional court, Rian Kalden of the Dutch and Benelux regional courts, and Andreas Haderlein of the EPO Boards of Appeal (BoA).

The EPO is unique among major patent offices in requiring an applicant to “adapt” the patent disclosure to the claims that have been deemed, after examination or opposition, ready to grant.

31 May 2022 - See update to this post - there are recent BoA decisions adding to the uncertainty of this issue about aligning text with claims. The EPO will hold a workshop the third week of June. We look forward to attending and posting about the EPO's approach.

This would be like the US Supreme Court saying that a US patent holder does not need to win a validity challenge, like a PTAB or Re-examination proceeding, to secure a PI for patent infringement.

On 2 May 2022, the EPO published an updated Unitary Patent Guide. The Guide outlines the procedures for obtaining a Unitary Patent once the EPO has granted the respective European patent and at the point when the Applicant is to secure national stage rights.

The point of the proposed Unified Patent Court (UPC) is to replace the patchwork litigation process now required in Europe to enforce or invalidate a patent.