Patent litigation and dispute settlement: a conference

"Litigation and Settlements in Patent Disputes", an attractive two-day conference organised by the Academy of European Law (ERA), takes place in Trier on 7 and 8 May 2015. Its main themes are (i) how to make the best use of EU and international legal instruments and (ii) invalidity, infringement and damages actions. There is a strong cast of speakers drawn from the judiciary, academe and private practice.
  Click here for programme details and registration.

Patents and patent litigation in the EU: a multidisciplinary approach

"The EU Patent Package: Multidisciplinary and International Perspectives" is the title of an event jointly organised by the University of Antwerp and the Centre for Intellectual Property Rights (CIR) at the University of Leuven. In the charming venue of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (Academy Palace, Hertogsstraat 1, 1000 Brussels). According to the organisers:

The conference starts off with a presentation on the latest developments concerning the implementation of the Patent Package from the perspective of the EPO by Margot Fröhlinger (Principal Director Patent Law and Multilateral Affairs EPO) followed by an update on the progress regarding the Unified Patent Court by Paul van Beukering (Chair of the Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court). These developments will then be examined critically from an economic perspective by Bruno van Pottelsberghe (ULB, former Chief Economist of the EPO), a legal perspective by Matthias Lamping (MPI) and a governance perspective by Ingrid Schneider (University Hamburg).

In the afternoon, the European patent reforms will be reviewed by two high-level international keynote speakers, Rochelle C. Dreyfuss (New York University) and Yoshiyuki Tamura taking into consideration the patent reforms in the US and Japan. Esther van Zimmeren (University of Antwerp) will focus on the international trend to establish specialized IP courts and the lessons to be drawn from other jurisdictions. This session will be followed by another critical feedback session with practitioners with an impressive track record from university, different industry sectors and legal practice: Nicole Antheunis, TTO Université de Liège, Emil Pot, ActoGeniX, David Laliberté, Microsoft, Bart Van den Hazel, GSK and Eric De Gryse, Simont Braun.

Even better news is that there will be ample time for discussion and extensive networking opportunities.

PhD students can register for just 150 euro, while everyone else pays 200 euro (inclusive of lunch and reception).

The organisers ask you to register online by 3 October here.

This blogger would only add that the multidisciplinary approach has much to commend it and he would like to see it extended to disciplines other than law and economics.  The psychology of litigation and dispute resolution would be one worthy topic, as well as the sociology of crowd behaviour in response to patent law challenges -- for example, the establishment of patent pools and the collective aggregation of defensive patents.   Let's go for it!

Limitation and Amendments of claims during litigation: a conference

From Anna Maria Stein (partner, Franzosi Dal Negro Setti, Milan) comes news of a conference on claim limitation/amendment during patent litigation. This event will be held on June 27 and 28 at the Aula Magna of the Court of Milan.  Says Anna Maria

"In particular, laws and procedures of five countries (Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK) will be compared. The solutions at the European Patent Office (Articles 105a and 123 EPC) will also be considered. We would like to share with European colleagues a general overview of the problem. In fact the various systems present non-irrelevant elements of divergence, so that a unitary title of protection may assume a different geometry when litigated in various countries".

This is the link to the website of the Court of Appeal of Milan where external attorneys may register: http://www.ca.milano.giustizia.it/formazione_magistrati.aspx?iscriviti_incontro=800 . No fee is due for the registration and participation at the two days conference. While the registration form is in only in Italian, it is quite simple -- and Anna Maria is available here if you need support, information and other details. Anna Maria's firm also has a web page dedicated to the conference, with the updated programmes and listing a set of questions in order to collect information on this matter from various countries.

I have taken the liberty of cutting and pasting the contents of this promising events from the attachments to Anna Maria's email:

Friday, June 27, 2014

Aula Magna “Emilio Alessandrini and Guido Galli” – Court of Milan

 

TRAINING AND UPDATING COURSE IN COMPARATIVE AND EUROPEAN LAW

 

-LAST INTERDISCIPLINARY SESSION-

 

EUROPEAN PATENT: A VARIABLE GEOMETRY RIGHT?

Limitation and Amendments of claims during litigation.

 

(In Italian and English with simultaneous interpreting)

 

8:30                     Registration

9:00                     Greetings

Baldo Marescotti, Subst. President Court of Appeal, Milan

Roberto Bichi, Subst. President Court of Milan

9:30                        Definition of the terms of discussion: different problems connected to patent amendments and limitations (chaired by dott.ssa Marina Tavassi)

                                   - Amendments and limitations in the European and national systems; during patent granting proceedings and after the patent is granted (Professor Mario Franzosi, Visiting Professor, University of Washington - 20')

- Amendments and limitations in the European system (Heli Pihlajamaa, Director EPO - 20')

- Amendments and limitations during patent grant proceedings: the Italian law (Professor Giuseppe Sena; Emeritus Professor I.P. law, Milan State University- 20')

10:45                        Amendments and limitations in the national systems – Part I (chaired by Rt Hon Robin Jacob)

- The English experience: Rt Hon Robin Jacob (Judge in the Court of Appeal of England and Wales - 20') + Penny Gilbert (London - 20')

- The German experience:  dr. Klaus Bacher (Richter Bundesgerichtshof - 20') + dr. Thornsten Bausch ( Munchen - 20')

- The French experience: Jean-Christophe Galloux, Président IRPI, Professeur Panthéon-Assas, Paris- 20') + Darius Szleper ( Paris - 20')

- The Dutch experience: prof. Jan Brinkhof, Professor Utrecht University ; Former Presiding Judge of the Court of Appeal The Hague - 20') + John Allen ( Amsterdam - 20')

13:15                        Break

14:30                        Amendments and limitations in the national systems – Part II -The Italian experience chaired by prof. Adriano Vanzetti (Emeritus Professor Intellectual Property, Catholic University, Milan- 20') - dott. Claudio Marangoni (Judge – Tribunal of Enterprises, Milan- 15'); dott. Umberto Scotti (President, Tribunal of Enterprises, Court of Turin- 15'); dott. Gabriella Muscolo (Member of Italian Competition Authority - 15'); Luciano Bosotti, President I.P. Counsels - 15'); prof. Giovanni  Guglielmetti (I.P. Professor, State University Milano-Bicocca- 15').

16:15                        Discussion       

17:45                        Final summary: Marina Tavassi (President of the Specialized Division for Enterprises of the Court of Milan - 20)

Sabato 28 giugno 2014

9,30      illustrazione del caso (Mock Trial) e presentazione delle modifiche proposte alle rivendicazioni del brevetto

10,00     difesa di parte attrice: giustificazione delle modifiche

10,40     difesa di parte convenuta: contestazione delle modifiche

11,20      pausa

11,35      camera di consiglio: un collegio costituito da tre persone in funzione di giudici

in contemporanea il pubblico, diviso in gruppi di lavoro, ricerca le possibili soluzioni

12,30     lettura della decisione e dibattito

13,00     fine lavori 

This Convention is aimed to magistrates and judges in ordinary training, judges and justices of the peace.

The conference is also open to the participation of lawyers (up to a maximum of 150), as well as to students of specialization advocate schools (maximum of 30).

For organizational reasons, the judges who wish to attend the meeting are asked to subscribe online through the website www.corteappello.milano.it, in the lower right part of the home page at “Formazione Decentrata Magistrati Incontri di Studio Iscrizioni e Materiali.”  Participants will receive a certificate of attendance.

The meeting is part of the initiatives which provide the provision of credits by the “Consiglio dell’Ordine degli Avvocati” under the Rules of the Consiglio Nazionale Forense concerning the Professional Training.

For this purpose, 150 seats are reserved to the Board of the Bar Association of Milan. Entries must be made through the system”RICONOSCO”.

If you have any further questions about this event, please contact Anna Maria here

EPO Case Law Conference Looms Large

Our good friend and reader Yonko Borisov (Conference Consultant/Academy, EPO) has just told us that registration is now open for the European Patent Office's Annual case law conference - Boards of appeal and key decisions 2013". 

Says Yonko, this conference provides a unique opportunity to meet numerous chairmen along with legally and technically qualified members of the Boards of Appeal. Participants will learn about the Boards' recent key decisions on late filings, among other enticing topics. 

For the first time ever, a mock trial will be held to convey the subtleties of a hearing.

To find out more, just click http://www.epo.org/boa-conference

When: 22 - 23 October 2013
Where: European Patent Office, Munich, Germany
Who: Primarily patent attorneys with a minimum of 4 years' experience

Guest speakers include the delightfully lucid Geertrui Van Overwalle from KU Leuven and Klaus Grabinski from the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof).

The language of the conference is said to be English, though it is not clear how much this will help, given that some decisions of the EPO are said to be impossible to understood in any language known to mankind ...

China Patent Forum: special offer

Readers of the IPKat weblog have been offered a substantial discount on the normal registration fee for a forthcoming Management Forum event, the China Patent Forum on Thursday 31 May.  There appears to be no reason why readers of PatLit who are not also readers of the IPKat should not be able to take advantage of the same offer. A substantial proportion of the programme is devoted to patent litigation and its alternatives.

Essentially, it's a day of good conferencing for £250 plus VAT, for which you can also pick up accreditation.  Click here for details.

Warsaw hosts Unified Patent Litigation System conference next month

"The Future Unified Patent Litigation System in the EU" is a one-day conference which is to be held in Warsaw within the framework of the Polish EU Presidency on 23 September 2011.  According to the conference website, the basics are as follows:

Objective
This conference organised in the framework of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council will provide a platform for discussion on the new draft agreement on a Unified Patent Court presented by the Hungarian Presidency on 14 June 2011. At the Competitiveness Council on 27 June 2011, 25 EU Member States agreed in principle to pursue the creation of a unitary patent protection system in the framework of enhanced cooperation. The Council agreed on a general approach for implementing enhanced cooperation in the creation of a unitary system and stressed the link between the creation of unitary patent protection and the creation of a unified patent litigation system. The draft agreement on a Unified Patent Court is key to the successful functioning of the new system.  

The objective of the conference is to analyse how issues raised by the Court of Justice of the European Union in its Opinion 1/09 on the previous version of the agreement regarding compatibility with EU law were addressed, as well as to promote an exchange of views between courts and practitioners on the functioning of the European Patent Court. 

Key topics
The one-day conference will consist of three panels, in which judges, legal practitioners, academic experts and users of the patent system will be invited to give their perspectives on the following issues:

• The draft agreement on the Unified Patent Court: Effectiveness and flexibility

• Overall architecture of the future Unified Patent Court

• Conformity of the new patent system with the EU Treaties

There will be time for discussion.

The event is organised by ERA, the Academy of European Law, and has an impressive cast of speakers -- including some seasoned patent judges. You can get all the details of the programme and registration here.

Great conference -- but what about the menu?

On 16 and 17 April 16 and 2010 the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) is organizing a conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, writes CEPIPI's Director General Christophe Geiger. The subject is "Towards a European Patent Court" and the event takes place under the high patronage of Mrs Catherine Trautmann, member of the European Parliament and former Minister for Culture and Communications. Says Christophe:

"As you know, there is now a rather broad consensus in favour of the creation of a common jurisdiction to settle disputes related to European patents and forthcoming Community patents. Indeed, the relevance of patent protection closely depends on the effectiveness of the jurisdictional system in charge of its implementation. On this matter the present system could be improved [a gentle understatement!].

This project is part of a resolutely federative process. However, it is still a delicate question and several controversial issues remain. With this in mind, we have gathered a panel of specialists – academics, practitioners and senior officials – to share their expertise and contribute to the success of this ambitious project.

For this reason, we are particularly honoured to inform you about this event and the gala dinner organised on the evening of the first day of the conference, on Friday 16 April at 8:00pm at the hotel restaurant du Parc in Obernai" (right).

If you'd like to attend, the provisional programme of the conference and the registration form are available on the CEIPI website here. Regretfully PatLit must report that the menu for the gala dinner has yet to be published.

CEIPI announces European patent court conference

The Centre d'Etudes Internationales de la Propriété Intellectuelle (CEIPI), Strasbourg, is organising a conference, "Towards a European Patent Court", on April 16 and 17, 2010. Hosted in the European Parliament Building, Strasbourg, the event is likely to be a well-attended one. Further information (though as yet there's not much of it) is available here.

TILEC Conference coming up

TILEC -- the Tilburg Law and Economics Center -- is holding a conference entitled "International Conference on Patent Reforms", this coming month, on 26 and 27 March 2009. The venue is the lovely Hotel Krasnapolsky, Amsterdam. The conference features internationally renowned speakers and intends to foster discussion on patents, innovation and competition policy between lawyers, economists and practitioners. The conference addresses current topics which include

*Patents and Innovation
* Trivial Patents, Laxity of Patent Offices
* IP Licensing in the context of SSOs
* IP Enforcement
* Abuse of Patents
* The Problem of Uncertainty in Patent Law

There's a strong team of speakers too. For the complete programme and registration, click here.