At a meeting this morning, I accidentally pick up some
interesting snippets about the UPC.
First, the new judges are going to be trained before they start work. This is reassuring. Second, the training is going to include an
introduction to patents and why they have claims. This is less reassuring. Third, in addition to basic patent law,
there will also be training in a set of more generic skills referred to as
“Judgecraft”. This is downright scary,
especially so close to Halloween.
I also learn that the estate agents have been called in to
find homes for the new courts. In the
UK, we are looking at two potential sites.
One is in the centre of London: it is too old and too small but it has
the advantage of being five minutes’ walk from the English judges’ usual places
of work, ie just about close enough for them to believe in it. The other is opposite City Airport and has
the advantage of being big and new and next door to a Travelodge®, the obvious
downside (apart from being next door to a Travelodge®) being that the English judges either won’t be able to find
it or won’t believe it’s there at all.
We may additionally have a court in Scotland, but only when
we need one, so it will be a kind of pop-up court. This has the advantage that it can be
established and dis-established without the English judges knowing a thing about
it.
The French can’t decide where to position their Central
Division, either. Mais non. So there is a lot of shrugging going on in
France at the moment. Every now and then
they take a break from the shrugging to hold a strike, and then they get back
to looking at the Versailles Palace plans and wondering if they could fit a
petit court dans un petit corner ici, non?
Avec un cellar pour les days quand nous sommes en strike? Il y a un Campanile® next door pour les
peasants et les patentees.
Finally, I learn that the UK government is still happily but
naively convinced it can get the entire IT system for the court up and running
before the end of 2015. Apart from the
link to France, of course, which may be un petit bit delayed. These are exciting times dans le world d’IP,
non?
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