HLK bolsters litigation presence with appointment of new London Partner HLK is pleased to announce the appointment of Jamie Rowlands as Partner in its Legal team. Jamie, who will be based in HLK’s London office, joins the HLK team following twenty years at Gowlings WLG. Visit UK site
English now a language of proceedings in all Local & Regional Divisions except Milan On 1 June 2023, the day that the Unified Patent Court has come into effect, the Court also announced that English will now be a language of proceedings at the Local Divisions in France (Paris) and Germany (Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Mannheim, Munich). Parties are therefore now able to bring actions at these Local Divisions in English and to plead in English at trial. Visit UK site
No Escape from (Virtual) Reality As the popularity and number of applications of VR/AR devices continues to increase, it may come as no surprise that similar trends may be observed with respect to the number of related patent applications filed in recent years. Visit UK site
How to Assess the Likelihood of Obtaining a Patent for a Blockchain Innovation in Europe Hundreds of patent applications that mention blockchain as at least part of the disclosed solution are filed at the European Patent Office (EPO) each year. The publicly available data associated with these patent applications is helpful for assessing the likelihood of obtaining a patent for a blockchain-based invention. Visit UK site
English is a UPC language of proceedings except in France, Germany and Italy The UPC has today (22 May) confirmed the languages for the 1st instance Local and Regional Divisions. As expected, the Regional Division covering Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia has adopted English as its language of proceedings. Visit UK site
UPC Case Management System and Opt Out APIs Unavailable from 31 May (9AM CET) - 1 June (9AM CET) Earlier today, the UPC issued a notice (see here) indicating that the UPC Case Management System (CMS) and opt out APIs will be unavailable from 9AM CET on 31 May until 9AM CET on 1 June. Visit UK site
