One new patent, one new court, one event -- and two venues

Managing Intellectual Property magazine, which this blogger founded back in the 1990s and for which he still has a soft spot, is running a conference, titled the "European Patent Reform Forum", in two European venues this autumn. On 9 September the Forum comes to Munich, Germany, and on 11 September it shifts to Paris, France. The significance of both venues, as well as a few words about the programme, can be found on my earlier Katpost here, together with details of registration discounts for readers of that weblog.

Apart from a session on the new unitary patent, the programme focuses almost entirely on patent litigation and dispute resolution issues. The sessions that address these topics are as follows:

The Unified Patent Court explained in detail 

• How to best navigate the new divisions and structures
• A practical guide to making best use of the courts and mitigating costs
• Understanding procedures: From starting proceedings through to trial
• Strategising in advance 

Split Proceedings and the UPC

• Transitional Period: Proceedings in National Court and in UPC
• Complaints by Licensees, Counterclaims for Revocation against Proprietor
• Bifurcation: Debunking the myths - Evaluating the possible pros and cons
• Appeals against Bifurcation under the 16th draft of the Rules of Procedure
• What should be learnt from current German practice?
• How judges will handle bifurcation 

The European Court of Justice and the Unified Patent Court 

• How the Spanish challenge affected plans for the new system
• When will/ won’t the ECJ be able to review issues of law pertaining to patents? 

Swiss focus 

• The new Swiss patent court – how does it work?
• The Swiss patent court and the UPC
• Challenges and opportunities for companies doing business in Switzerland 

Alternative IP strategies parallel to the UPC 

• Avoiding the down-sides of court litigation before the UPC: Alternative dispute resolution
and arbitration proceedings
• Best practices and strategies to utilize third party observations and opposition proceedings
before the EPO
• Interdependency and future interplay between existing legal mechanisms and the UPCsystem 

Litigation planning and forum shopping in the European Unified Patent Court

• Game over? Litigation planning and strategy under the new UPC
• Risks and opportunities of forum shopping in Europe 

Inter-industry debate - International litigation considerations

• How different countries regard the UPC
• The future of national legislation
• The unanswered questions about the UPC

This blogger is unable to attend, though he'd very much like to do so -- and while some of his friends are on the programmes (the cast of speakers is a little different, reflecting the fact that the host cities are in different countries, they are not in a position to do any real-time speed-blogging. Accordingly, if any of our readers are likely to be there and would like to write up a note on one or more of the sessions, for publication on this weblog, can they please email me at jjip@btinternet.com and let me know.