EPO and UPC sign data exchange agreement
November 22, 2022
The European Patent Office and the Unified Patent Court (UPC) have signed an agreement on the exchange of data between the two institutions.
The agreement, which was signed by EPO President António Campinos and President of the UPC’s Court of Appeal Klaus Grabinksi on the fringes of a high-level conference last week in Brussels, provides the legal basis for facilitating the exchange of data between the EPO’s European Patent Register and the UPC’s Register, as well as for possible operational support from the EPO for the UPC’s training framework.
The agreement will be an important element in establishing the UPC’s case management system. According to António Campinos, ‘The EPO is proud to support the UPC in establishing a truly IT-driven, unified patent judiciary.’ Mr Grabinski stated: ‘The UPC is pleased to cooperate with the EPO in the necessary exchange of register data and in the training for UPC judges.’
The agreement will take effect with the entry into operation of the Unified Patent Court Agreement, which is expected as of 1 April 2023.
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Inventive but not new
Does anyone have more context? The information itself is not more than "two top guys in IP matters are having a field day". Proceedings before UPC simply do not work without an instant data exchange with EPO, so what is the point of a November 2022 agreement? Does it settle things that are already practice in background? Since the UPC is dependent from EPO data and case experience (training judges), does the EPO get something in return? Is the agreement open to the public?
Concerned observer
What to make of the statement that "The agreement will be an important element in establishing the UPC’s case management system"? A fully fledged version of the UPC's case management system was already supposed to be ready for action. Indeed, "strong authentication" was supposed to have been implemented for that CMS in September 2022 ... which deadline was replaced by "the end of October 2022" and now by heaven knows what date. The start of the sunrise period is now just over one month away. Are we really supposed to be reassured by a statement which effectively confirms that the CMS is still in the process of being established? Oh well, if the UPC's "implementation roadmap" can be trusted, this week should see the start of the "Sunrise CMS practice" period, which is when "the CMS system will be accessible to the public with the same functions as from the start of the Sunrise". Amazingly, only 3 to 4 weeks was originally envisaged for that period. Given that it has not yet started, the likelihood is now that the "Sunrise CMS practice" period will last for a maximum of 3 weeks, and perhaps even just over 2 weeks. It would not surprise me if the "Sunrise CMS practice" period starts at the end of this week ... ie a day on which most or all of the US is on holiday, and is immediately followed by two non-working days. That would tie in with the date selected for the start of the sunrise period proper, which is a non-working day that (at least in the UK) is immediately followed by a bank holiday. It would also follow the pattern of the UPC seemingly doing everything that it can to increase the legal and practical difficulties associated with preparing and filing opt-outs. It is almost as if the UPC is taking active steps that are aimed at reducing the number of valid opt-outs that can be registered before the end of the sunrise period. It makes one wonder whether the UPC has an interest (including a financial interest) in increasing its early case load, and hence has a clear conflict of interests with regard to its handling of (the practicalities for) opt-out applications.