Abstract
The new common judiciary for European patents (UPC) will play a crucial role in the future European patent system. The UPC will be a very specialised court that i.a. recruits judges from specialists’ circles and has as part of its mission to develop a coherent and autonomous body of case law. The article points out that the UPC because of this design will be biased towards technology based values and uniformity at the expense of other values and interests e.g. non-economic public interests, and values associated with diversity. The practical effects of these biases are analysed regarding cases involving ordre public and morality and scope of protection. The article shows that the biases will affect the law in all the areas discussed and that if unchecked they will reduce some of the “wriggling room” which the current system has provided. To maintain that room a focused effort by the UPC to neutralise the effects of the biases is needed. Lastly, concrete steps to achieve this rebalancing are proposed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Keywords
- Faculty of Law
- Unified Patent Court
- UPC
- patent law
- EU