IP Transactions Attorneys Author Intellectual Property Magazine Article on U.K.’s Unified Patent Court Ratification

In The News
June 8, 2018
Attorneys:
Edward J. Kelly
,
Regina Sam Penti

Intellectual property transactions partner Edward Kelly and IP transactions counsel Regina Penti (both of Boston and London) authored a May 30 article in Intellectual Property Magazine examining the United Kingdom’s long-awaited ratification of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement.  The move was significant because it removes an important hurdle to the establishment of a European Union-wide court for patent enforcement and revocation proceedings, and also because it happened even as the UK was preparing to withdraw from the EU.  

The authors note that while the UK’s ratification provides significant political clarity regarding its post-Brexit support of pan-European IP regimes, legal questions regarding the UK’s post-Brexit participation, and Germany’s stalled ratification, continue to cloud the future of the UPC. Once it goes into effect, the UPC will usher in a new era of patent law by replacing the currently fragmented country-by-country patent enforcement regime in Europe with a single judgment regime.