Opting out of UPC will be free of charge

Octrooien

Geschreven door Rolf Suurmond

Uitsluitend in het Engels beschikbaar. The Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court has published a decision that there will be no official fee for the application for and withdrawal of an opt-out.

This news takes away a fear of some users of the patent system that the opt-out fee would give rise to considerable cost. The opt-out of the jurisdiction of the UPC allows a patent owner to ensure that patent disputes will be dealt with by the national courts and not by the UPC.

The fee has been removed because the computerized system of the UPC is expected to be so efficient, that there is no real cost that would have to be compensated for by an opt-out fee. The administrative burden lies mainly with the applicant, who has to enter the data for the opt-out into the computer system of the UPC.

More details of the litigation fees have also been published. More details can be found on the webpage of the UPC here.