Book Launch: European Patent Law. The Unified Patent Court and the European Patent Convention

Edited by Professor Duncan Matthews and Professor Paul Torremans (De Gruyter, Berlin, 2023)

This book launch event considered the implications of the Unitary Patent Package and establishment of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), a significant change to the patent regime established five decades ago by the European Patent Convention (EPC). The event brought together senior members of the judiciary, academia, and practice to share their thoughts and experience, and reflected on the themes of an important new book on European Patent Law, edited by Professor Duncan Matthews and Professor Paul Torremans, in which judges, academics and practitioners reflect on the coming changes to European patent law.

 

Programme:

Welcome: Gwilym Roberts, Chair, Kilburn & Strode

Introductory remarks:

• Professor Duncan Matthews, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London
• Professor Paul Torremans, School of Law, University of Nottingham

Panel discussion:

• The Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Colin Birss, Royal Courts of Justice
• Professor Frantzeska Papadopoulou Skarp, Law Faculty, Stockholm University
• Richard Davis KC, Barrister, European Patent Attorney, Authorised UPC Representative, Hogarth Chambers
• Panel chair: Gwilym Roberts, Kilburn & Strode

 

Gwilym Roberts is Chair of Kilburn & Strode and a Visiting Professor in the Centre of Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University of London. He is the co-host of the podcast Two IPs In A Pod alongside the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorney's Lee Davies.

Duncan Matthews is Professor of Intellectual Property Law in the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University of London. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich.

Paul Torremans is Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the University of Nottingham. He is Co-Director of the University of Nottingham Commercial Law Centre, Faculty of Social Sciences.

The Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Colin Birss is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and Deputy Head of Civil Justice. He is an independent judicial member of the EPO Boards of Appeal Committee, General Editor of Terrell on the Law of Patents, and a Council member of the UK Foundation for Science and Technology.

Frantzeska Papadopoulou Skarp is Professor of Intellectual Property Law in the Law Faculty at Stockholm University and Professor of Private Law at the Center of Personalized Medicine at the Karolinska Institute. She is the Director of the Institute of Intellectual Property Law and Market Law (IFIM) as well as an expert of the legislative committee on IP legislation (Sweden).

Richard Davies KC is a barrister at Hogarth Chambers and is dual qualified as a European Patent attorney, being equally at home before the EPO and the UK Courts. He is an Authorised UPC Representative and is one of the General Editors of the CIPA ‘Black Book’. He sits as a criminal Recorder on the Midlands circuit.