The UPLS: will it make a real difference?

The final session of todday's "Standards and Patents" conference was dedicated to the Unified Patent Litigation System (UPLS, or "Upples" as I like to think of it), the new reality now that EPLA, the European Patent Litigation Agreement, is dead and buried.

First to speak was Nokia Director of IPR, Regulatory Affairs, Tim Frain (right), who gave an up-to-the-minute account of the impending reality of an international convention, which should be done and dusted this December. Tim's PowerPoints, which are as information-rich as they are visually riveting, can be viewed here.

Tim's presentation was followed by mine. Since Tim had covered the subject so well, I chose to argue the thesis of "change = no change", suggesting that the position of patent owners and litigants in Europe post-UPLS -- in terms of business plans, risk, strategy, interference from competition authorities and so on -- would be much the same as they are at present. My PowerPoints, which give some idea of my points but do not adumbrate them in detail, can be accessed here.