Unified Patent Court Rules of Procedure – close to the finish line, by Wouter Pors, Bird & Bird The Hague

"The 17th draft of the UPC Rules of Procedure was published on 31 October 2014 as a compare document that shows the changes in comparison to the 15th draft. Changes in red have been made by the drafting committee based on the submissions made in the public consultation that was held in 2013. This version was previously published as the 16th draft and has already been discussed widely.

"For this article I assume that the reader is familiar with the UPC system and with the 16th draft. Changes in blue have been made in that 16th draft by the Legal Group of the Preparatory Committee. These will be discussed here. A table explaining the Legal Group’s changes has been attached to the 17th draft; this is similar to the Digest published on the UPC website, which explains the changes included in the 16th draft. The last stage in the public consultation on these rules will be an oral hearing on 26 November in Trier, which will focus on these latest two sets of changes. According to the roadmap that was published on the UPC website in September, the plan is for the Preparatory Committee to agree on a final version of the Rules of Procedure in May 2015."

Read the entire contribution here.

Read the latest draft of the UPC Rules of procedure here.