What’s the new European patent court mean to global innovators?
The European Union’s new Unified Patent Court is an international body set up by participating EU Member States to deal with the infringement and validity of both Unitary Patents and European patents. The court's objective is “putting an end to costly parallel litigation and enhancing legal certainty.”
Unitary patents are intended to make it possible to get patent protection in up to 25 EU Member States by submitting a single request to the European Patent Office, making the procedure simpler and more cost effective for applicants. The new system goes live on June 1, 2023.
What must U.S. and multi-national U.S.-based companies understand about the court?
Why should inventors and their organizations factor it in to any existing or new patent strategy they may be developing?
For answers to these questions and more listen to my interview with attorneys Marianne Schaffner and Thierry Lautier who practice out of the Paris office of Reed Smith. Marianne heads the intellectual Property team in Paris and the patent practice in Europe. She manages complex national and transnational patent, trade secrets and trademark disputes in the healthcare, chemistry, technology and telecommunications sectors. Thierry is part of the firm’s global Intellectual Property Group. With a dual legal and engineering/scientific background, Thierry uses his understanding, knowledge, and experience to provide clients with creative, technically robust, and business-oriented patent strategies.
This podcast is the audio companion to the Journal on Emerging Issues in Litigation. The Journal is a collaborative project between HB Litigation Conferences and the Fastcase legal research family, which includes Full Court Press, Law Street Media, and Docket Alarm. The podcast itself is a joint effort between HB and our friends at Law Street Media. If you have comments or wish to participate in one our projects please drop me a note at Editor@LitigationConferences.com.
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Tom Hagy
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Host of the Emerging Litigation Podcast
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Marianne is a well-known intellectual property litigation lawyer. She is recognized for coordinating and managing complex national and transnational patent, trade secrets and trademark disputes in the healthcare, chemistry, technology and telecommunications sectors.
Having studied and worked in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States, she has extensive knowledge of both the European and American judicial systems.
Marianne Schaffner is repeatedly ranked by Chambers Global and Chambers Europe and is regularly ranked in Legal 500 EMEA, Décideurs, Stratégie Finance Droit among the Top Leaders.
Thanks to his dual legal and engineering/scientific background, Thierry is unique in being one of very few French patent litigators, qualified as both an attorney-at-law and a European patent attorney. As an optics and electronics engineer by background, Thierry uses his understanding, knowledge, and experience to provide clients with creative, technically robust, and business-oriented patent strategies.
In addition to patents, Thierry counsels his clients on trade secrets. Thierry’s practice includes the building up of corporate trade secrets programs (the so-called “reasonable steps” to protect trade secrets), as well as the protection of trade secrets during court litigation (regarding confidential evidence). Thierry is the author of many articles in France on trade secrets and on their interplay with intellectual property.