● 04.09.18

●● The ‘Sisvelisation’ of Europe, With or Without the Unified Patent Court (UPC)

Posted in Europe, Patents at 1:44 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Patent aggression and confiscation of products at expos (as happened two years ago in Las Vegas after Europe had become notorious for it a decade ago) still a troublesome aspect of the patent system, with firms such as Philips pulling the strings

SEVERAL months ago IAM noted that Philips’ so-called ‘IP’ division had become headless. Several months later (if not the following year) nothing has changed, as IAM wrote just before the weekend:

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Very quietly, something of a revolution has taken place at Philips. For the first time this century, the company’s IP function – Philips IP & Standards – is headed up by someone who has no long-term IP background and who is not labelled its chief IP officer. Instead, Clement Revetti is titled “head” of IP&S with, I understand, a direct report into Philips chief legal officer, Marnix van Ginneken. It was van Ginneken who took temporary charge of Philips IP&S when Brian Hinman left the company last autumn.

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So what is going on at Philips IP [sic] & Standards [sic]? Are they still going to sic the patent mafia (e.g. Sisvel) at competitors, raiding booths at expos and stealing stuff on behalf of Philips (citing EPO- and USPTO-granted patents)? We hope they have left that strategy behind, but we’re not so optimistic. As we showed some months ago, the UPC threatened to boost such theft/confiscation, putting it on 'steroids'. And as IAM showed yesterday, in Spain you can simply steal products using patent allegations and speedy trials. This is what IAM’s editor wrote:

Barcelona court reveals 40% rise in fact track protocol activity during this year’s Mobile World Congress

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If you were to name Europe’s patent litigation hotspots, cities like Dusseldorf, Munich, Mannheim, London and The Hague would spring quickly to mind; perhaps followed by the likes of Paris and Milan. One thing is for sure, though: no Spanish city would make the list. But perhaps it should. Because for the period leading up to his year’s Mobile World Congress – which was held in Barcelona from 26th February to 1st March – there is a good case for saying that the Catalonian capital’s commercial court was among the busiest patent venues on the continent.

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Spain has no interest in the UPC, but it already implements some of the most controversial provisions of UPC. What good is patent justice if it’s done hastily, with barely a chance/opportunity for appeal, and products get confiscated en masse before facts are even known? █

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