Battistelli: “nobody knows today” (what will happen to the London court)

Battistelli speaks to award winner Adnane Remmal

At the occasion of the European Inventor Award 2017 (15 June 2017 in Venice), Benoît Battistelli, president of the European Patent Office (EPO) spoke to reporters about the unitary patent (Euractive reports).

According to him the Unified Patent Court is “is not an EU agency”,and so the London location of the court's central division would not have to be relocated to an EU member state after Brexit is complete. Whether that would be politically acceptable  “would be another issue” and “It will depend on the outcome of the negotiations”. He conceded that “nobody knows today” what will happen with the court.

According to the article we do have a new start date though: early 2018.

I'm not sure I'd bet on that. Let's say that early 2018 means March 2018, and assuming an 8-month lead time between ratification and start, this would mean that by August 2017 the UK and Germany have each ratified the UPC agreement.  Given the politically sensitive issue for the UK and the requested delay of the German constitutional court, it seems a bit optimistic that both will be resolved in two months time.


Photo from the Award ceremony photo gallery at EPO. 



Comments