The UKIPO has published the UK Government's Response to feedback received on its Technical Review and Call for Evidence concerning implementation into UK law of the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPC Agreement) and the Regulations establishing the Unitary Patent.
Key conclusions that the Government has reached in the Response include:
- the enforcement of UPC orders and decisions should be provided for in primary legislation in order to make it clear that such orders and decision are enforceable in the UK;
- double-patenting of Unitary Patents and national (GB) patents should be prohibited;
- the law of groundless threats should be applied to Unitary Patents relating to an act done or which, if done, would be done in the UK;
- national supplementary protection certificates should be available based on Unitary Patents;
- changes to the infringement provisions of the UK Patents Act will only be made where there are 'material‛ differences between the Act and the UPC Agreement. This includes the addition to UK law of two new exceptions to infringement: the plant breeding exception in Article 27(c) UPC Agreement; and, the computer software exception in Article 27(k) UPC Agreement. The latter is to be implemented in two stages: initially for European Patents (including Unitary Patents); and, later, for national (GB) patents.
The Government is now preparing the secondary legislation that will be needed to make the above amendments to the Patents Act 1977.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
We operate a free-to-view policy, asking only that you register in order to read all of our content. Please login or register to view the rest of this article.