European Patent Court, the government supports Milan in the running for the third seat
On 1 June 2023 the new European patent jurisdiction will be operational and the city of Milan is a candidate to host the (third) seat of the Unified Patent Court. "There is maximum political attention on this dossier", assures Amedeo Teti, director general at the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy
Final rush for Milan, candidate for the third seat of the Unified Patent Court (Tub), the body responsible for settling disputes related to patents.
The new European patent system will be launched on 1 June 2023. Regime that will ensure simpler and more convenient protection of intellectual property rights in Europe, thanks to the introduction of a one-stop shop for patent registration in Europe and the establishment of a unified dispute resolution system.
For now, the Tub will have two headquarters, in Paris and Monaco, while Luxembourg will host the Court of Appeal. However, the intergovernmental agreement on the Tub provided for a third headquarters in London. A prospect waned due to Brexit which paved the way for Milan's Italian candidacy.
An assignment on which the Meloni government is working.
“There is maximum political attention on this dossier in view of the adoption by the Court's governance of the decision on the creation of a third headquarters to replace the one in London following Brexit. This is a strategic dossier, which is led by the Maeci, which represents Italy in the Administrative Committee of the TUB, operating in close collaboration with the Ministry of Justice, MiMIT, the MEF and the Department for European Policies".
This is what Amedeo Teti, director general for the protection of industrial property – Italian Patent and Trademark Office of MiMIT argued, speaking during the conference "Unified Patent Court – why the (third) seat in Milan is just and sustainable" held on 31 January at the Eni Enrico Mattei Foundation.
The conference, organized by the lawyers Angela Lupo and Carlo Dattilo of Leitframe , was attended by, among others: Professor Laura Cavalli of the Eni Enrico Mattei Foundation; the lawyer Rosanna Ricci of Lexacta Global Legal Advice and Francesco Salerno, professor of commercial law at the University of Foggia.
THE EUROPEAN PATENT SYSTEM
The European patent system, which promises to generate an increase of 1.8 billion euros in annual flows of foreign direct investment into the EU, aims to reduce the costs of patent protection, to the benefit of companies, and to promote research and innovation, while supporting the green and digital transition, underlines Ansa . At the time of its launch, the unitary patent will cover only 17 EU countries out of the 25 participating in the initiative. In addition to Italy, there are France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Austria, Bulgaria, Slovenia.
THE ITALIAN CANDIDATE OF MILAN FOR THE THIRD SEAT OF THE UNIFIED PATENT COURT
“For the purposes of the entry into force of the TUB Agreement, it has already been recognized that after the United Kingdom's exit from the Agreement in 2020, Italy represents the third signatory EU country, after Germany and France, which in the year of reference, i.e. 2012, had the highest number of European patents alive. Without Italian ratification, therefore, it would not have been possible to even start the phase of provisional application of the Agreement. This is a first important fact from which to start to assert our reasons” Teti explained in support of Milan's candidacy as the third seat of the Unified Patent Court.
“Strengthened by this fact, which is incontrovertible, today we fully claim the assignment of London's technological skills to Milan in the sectors of human needs, chemistry and metallurgy. Milan has all the credentials to carry out these new tasks. Furthermore, there are no other competing bids against Milan to host the third venue. And this is a second factual element to consider positively. The premises where the local headquarters of the TUB in Milan will be located, in via di San Barnaba, are large and ready as of now to also host the third headquarters” added the manager of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy.
OUR COUNTRY "MODERATE INNOVATOR" IN THE ASSESSMENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
In terms of innovation, Italy is playing its role as inventor par excellence.
If we consider the " European Innovation Scoreboard 2022 " created by the European Commission, our country is in 16th place among the 27 European countries with a result lower than the European average and is classified as a "moderate innovator". The score, equal to 91.6% of the EU average, is however higher than the average of moderate innovators (89.7%) and with a growth rate higher than the European one (17.4% against an EU average of 9.9 %) which is allowing our country to reduce the gap with countries classified as "strong innovators" and "innovation leaders".
But if we look at the performance ranking in intellectual assets (such as patent applications), our country together with two other moderate innovator countries (Estonia and Malta) performs above the EU average.
LOMBARDY NUMBER ONE REGION IN ITALY FOR PATENT APPLICATIONS
This result is also certified by the increase in patent applications from Italy. Patent applications from our country and directed to the European Patent Office (Epo) in 2021 grew by 6.5% year on year according to the Epo Patent Index statistics published last April.
In 2021 Italian companies and inventors filed a total of 4919 patent applications with the EPO, the highest number ever recorded to date. The transport sector in Italy is confirmed as the one with the highest requests (400), the measurement sector is the fastest growing sector together with Med-tech (Medical Technology). The two European countries that submitted the most applications to the EPO, Germany (+0.3%) and France (-0.7%), remained almost stable last year.
Four Italian regions entered the top thirty European regions based on EPO patent applications: Lombardy (12th place), Emilia-Romagna (18th), Veneto (22nd) and Piedmont (30th).
Although the share of all Italian patent applications has decreased from 33.4 to 31.5%, Lombardy remains the number one region in Italy for patent applications, followed by Emilia-Romagna with a share of 16.7 % and from Veneto (share of 13.1%). These three regions account for more than 60% of all patent applications from Italy to EPO.
MILAN, THE THIRD MOST RIGHT LOCATION FOR THE UNIFIED EUROPEAN PATENT COURT
And Milan, the capital of Italian manufacturing where the highest number of patents are ever registered, would therefore be the third fairest seat of the Unified European Patent Court.
Three years ago, in November 2017, Italy narrowly lost the possibility of assigning the headquarters of EMA, the European Medicines Agency, to Milan. It would be a disappointment for Milan and Italy to miss the assignment of another important body, one of the three offices of the Unified Patent Court.
THE FALLS FOR ITALY
Finally, "The positive effects for Italy with the attribution of the third office in Milan would be significant" concludes the lawyer Teti.
“On the one hand, the recognition of the headquarters in Milan would rebalance the current imbalance that exists between EU countries with respect to the headquarters of European organizations active in the Intellectual Property sector, taking into account the prerogatives already assigned to Germany, which hosts the European Office of Patents, and to France, which hosts the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) as well as having been assigned a central headquarters of the TUB with highly strategically important competences. In this way, our country would acquire more visibility and reputation in the sector 3 of the protection of creativity and innovation” highlights the manager of Mimit.
On the other hand "For Milan and Lombardy, in particular, a positive economic induced would be generated thanks to the increased activity for consultancy and legal firms, ancillary service and hospitality structures, with a potential increase in employment at the local level, as well as further opportunities for specialization would be created for graduates, companies and researchers in the patent sector. Furthermore, this would favor the attraction of new investments, also from abroad. Let's remember that Lombardy is among the most competitive manufacturing regions in Europe” concludes Teti.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/tribunale-europeo-dei-brevetti-il-governo-sostiene-milano-in-lizza-per-la-terza-sede/ on Sat, 04 Feb 2023 06:18:53 +0000.