In this episode of the EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS: Intellectual Property podcast, founding host Dan Weinger speaks with Dr. Thomas Gniadek, a seasoned EU patent and trade secrets litigator with Simmons & Simmons in Munich, Germany, about the Unified Patent Court (UPC). Coming soon to the European Union, the UPC and the Unitary Patent promise to create a radical sea change in how patents will function in the European Union.
Dan and Thomas dive into some of the changes that are coming, covering these topics and more:
- Expected shift in the balance of power in the patent space, with the UPC covering a market of more than 400 million people
- Types of matters to be handled at the local and regional divisions versus the central division courts
- Limits of the European Court of Justice, which sets up the Court of Appeals as the final arbiter of patent law
- How the UPC will decide what language to use for litigation
- How the Court of Appeals will synthesize decisions from the local and central divisions to make patent law consistent across the EU over the coming years, including the likely development of sophisticated damages jurisprudence
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