Aldgate for London's Unified Patent Court: what they say ...

The British patent profession seems to be welcoming the news that the London division of the Unified Patent Court will be located in Aldgate, on the 8th floor of Aldgate Tower. Here are the first two swift reactions:

Andrea Brewster, President of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) said:

“We are confident that the court will be a success and will help to make the UK’s capital the centre for all patent-related legal activity in chemical and pharmaceutical innovation. The Government is working assiduously to bring the UPC into existence. The presence of part of the central division in London allows the UK to maintain its strong position as a centre of excellence for patent litigation. The UK can use the Court’s presence to build on London’s existing reputation and turn the capital into a global hub for intellectual property law.”

For the IPKat weblog, Annsley the AmeriKat chimed in:

Although this location is sure to make some Holborn-based litigators, including possibly some potential judges, a bit miffed, the AmeriKat considers that this is actually a good compromise when compared to the prospect of a longer trek to Building 1000 in the Docklands. There was also some sentiment that the location needed to represent the Best of British in order to showcase to court users that the UK was taking the location seriously (i.e., "Please, dear client, admire this beautiful Georgian architecture and gold-plated eagle motif.").

Annsley's post contains the statement that the new building is a 55 minute drive from Heathrow Airport.  This is probably not the Heathrow Airport, where aeroplanes take off and land on a regular basis, but a pub of the same name that's about 600 metres from Aldgate Tower: never, never take your car into town, even if you don't need to park it ...