Saturday 18 October 2014

UPC update

10 October 2014

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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