Intellectual Property Law
New Matter SPRING 2016, Volume 41, Number 1
Content
- 2016 New Matter Author Submission Guidelines
- Case Comments
- Contents
- Copyright Act Termination Right in 2015 - Year in Review
- In Memoriam: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia 1936 - 2016
- Intellectual Property Section Executive Committee 2015-2016
- Intellectual Property Section Interest Group Representatives 2015-2016
- Interest Group Reports
- International Ip Developments
- Letter from the Chair
- Letter from the Editor-in-Chief
- MCLE Self-Study Article
- Ninth Circuit Report
- Petitioning for Inter Partes Review
- Remedies When Infringers File Bankruptcy
- The Licensing Corner
- The State Bar of California Intellectual Property Alumni
- Ttab Decisions and Developments
- The European Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court System: What's in it for U.S. Users?
The European Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court System: What’s in it for U.S. Users?
RAIMUND LUTZ
European Patent Office
INTRODUCTION
FOR MANY DECADES, USERS OF THE European patent system complained about the fact that there was no unitary patent in Europe, and no common European patent court. While the European Patent Convention (EPC) established a common application, examination, and grant procedure which is executed by the European Patent Office (EPO), once the EPO grants a European patent for up to forty-two states1 with the general effects of a national patent granted by these states, the centralised procedure comes to an end (although it is still possible for an opposition to be filed within the first nine months after grant of the patent2).