https://ffii.org/unified-patent-court-is-100x-more-expensive-and-an-sme-killer-europe-is-commiting-an-economic-suicide/ Skip to content * Become Member * Follow on Twitter * Get Involved Donate Now [ ]GO * Donate Now * [ ] Go * * FFII * FFII * Home * Blog * Patented Webshop * Working Groups * Press * Donate Now * Action + Become Member + Follow on Twitter + Get Involved FFII - Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure information on software patents, enforcement of IP, trade agreements [] FFII (https://ffii.org/ unified-patent-court-is-100x-more-expensive-and-an-sme-killer-europe-is-commiting-an-economic-suicide /) * Home * Blog * Patented Webshop * Working Groups * Press Unified Patent Court is 100X more expensive and an SME killer, Europe is commiting an economic suicide By Benjamin HENRION | 13 hours ago justice denied Brussels, 31 october 2021 -- FFII says the proposed Unified Patent Court is an SME killer with its super-expensive court fees of 20.000EUR. No small company will be able to defend itself if it is accused of violating a patent, the proposed UPC court fees will deny access to justice for small companies, the cost being 100X more expensive than the current situation in the different countries. The claim that the Unitary Patent makes the system better for SMEs is a gigantic lie. Europe is committing an economic suicide by making sure the Court is not accessible to small companies. Last week, business assocations members of BusinessEurope from Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Czech Republic refused to endorse a call to ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA). Those business associations mostly share the same position that the UPC court fees of 20.000EUR (validity) and 11.000EUR (infringement) are way too high, and will deny access to justice for SMEs: "The Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic thus demands [...] to reduce the court fees, especially the fee for patent abolition's proposal, which is set at 20 000 euros. If a subject wants to abolish an EU patent on the territory of the Czech Republic now, the fee is approximately 200 times lower." -- SPCR.CZ: The proposed level of fees is too high for the Czech companies, the Confederation states https://www.spcr.cz/en/ 23-aktualne/statesment/ 8743-confederation-on-the-unified-patent-court-fees This is also the analysis of the Portuguese Association of Consultants in Intellectual Property (ACPI): "UPC rules are unbalanced in favor of patent holders and costs of European patent litigation in the UPC will be very high and unaffordable for companies resident in Portugal, jeopardizing the right to a fair and equitable process." -- ACPI: Patente Europeia de Efeito Unitario e Tribunal Unificado de Patentes violam principios basicos da UE e prejudicam empresas Portuguesas http://www.acpi.pt/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ ConclusoesVIForum.pdf The same position is also shared by the Spanish Confederation of Employers and Industries of Spain (CEOE): "Litigation under the UPC will be unaffordable for SMEs. Just have a look at the very high court fees that have recently been proposed by the UPC Preparatory Committee. The fee for invalidation, for example, would be 20.000 euros. On top of that, you have the costs of lawyers, translations, etcetera." -- Kluwer Patent Blog: Despite the defeat at the CJEU, Spain will not join the Unitary Patent system http:// patentblog.kluweriplaw.com/2015/06/17/ despite-the-defeat-at-the-cjeu-spain-will-not-join-the-unitary-patent-system / Even worse, in some countries small companies can call for Legal Aid if they don't have the means to pay the expensive lawyers fees, and the UPC has scrapped that support for SMEs, and restricted to physical persons only (individuals). For example, in Austria, legal aid is available for small companies. Benjamin Henrion, President of FFII, says: "The Unified Patent Court court fees of 20.000EUR will prevent small companies to defend themselves, especially against patent trolls, which have most of the time very weak patents. The argument that the UPC is 'cost-cutting' is a giant lie and does not fly if a simple case is 100X times more expensive than a national case. Court fees in most member states are between 80EUR and 600EUR, except for Germany." He finishes: "Like for the European Electricity Crisis, Europe is designing a patent court system which is the most expensive, a disaster for small companies that will be denied access to Justice." References * BusinessEurope: European Business Community calls for the rapid ratification and entry into operation of the Unitary Patent system - "This paper and the positions reflected in it are not supported by the Spanish Confederation of Employers and Industries (CEOE), Confederacao Empresarial de Portugal (CIP), the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic (SPCR) and BusinessHungary (MGYOSZ)" https://www.businesseurope.eu/sites/ buseur/files/media/position_papers/legal/ 2021-10-12_joint_business_statement_unitary_patent_unified_patent_court.pdf * WKO: Consultation on the Rules of Court fees and recoverable costs, Position Paper of the Austrian Economic Chamber: "In Austria, legal aid is granted when a party is not able to pay the costs without interference of his reasonable maintenance and there is no evidence that the enforcement is malicious or without a reasonable chance. [...] We do not consider it fair that the granting of legal aid [in the UPC] is subject to natural people." https://news.wko.at/news/oesterreich/ STN-WKOe-Europ-Patentgericht-Gerichtsgebuehren.pdf * Kluwer Patent Blog: Legal and financial concerns: Czech Republic will not ratify UPCA any time: "Typically, in response the sued company could be advised to demand cancellation of the Unitary Patent by means of a counterclaim but in that case, it will be required to pay a court fee of EUR 20,000. Many Czech companies/ individuals will simply not be able to afford to pay such high court and related attorney fees even in cases where they are convinced that they do not infringe a patent or that a patent can be successfully invalidated. As consequence, purely because of the costs, they would be prevented from defending themselves in the proceeding at the UPC." http://patentblog.kluweriplaw.com/ 2019/09/13/ legal-and-financial-concerns-czech-republic-will-not-ratify-upca-any-time-soon / Share this: * Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) * Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) * Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) * Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window) * Click to print (Opens in new window) * Related News Leave a Reply Cancel reply [noupcv3] Support the FFII The FFII is funded through individual membership fees as well as through donations from individuals, civil society organizations, and enterprises. Please consider becoming a contributing member and donate to our cause. Your contributions help us to make a difference and allow us to continue our work. News * justice denied Unified Patent Court is 100X more expensive and an SME killer, Europe is commiting an economic suicide Brussels, 31 october 2021 -- FFII says the proposed Unified Patent Court is an SME killer with its super-expensive court fees of 20.000EUR. * Margot Frohlinger Manipulation and Recycling of the Unified Patent Court (UPC)'s Impact Assessment Open Letter to the European Institutions, and Heads of State Brussels, 30 October 2021. * [no-just] EU declares Unitary Patent's PPI agreement into force while UK is still a condition, ignoring Brexit and the Rule of Law Brussels, 29 october 2021 -- The Council of the European Union has declared 'into force' the Unitary Patent's PPI agreement on the 27th October 2021, while the UK is still mentioned in its Art18(1) as a requirement for it to enter into force. * [cheat] European Commission cheated Unitary Patent's Impact Assessment to hide its high costs for SMEs Brussels, 17th June 2021 -- [updated on 4th October] FFII has received a testimony from a whistleblower that the European Commission has recycled an old Impact Assessment (IA) of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), in order to hide the controversial self-financed aspect of the Court, which is why the Court is too expensive for SMEs. * [patent-] FFII call on donations against Unitary Software Patent Trolls after disastrous Bundestag vote Berlin-Brussels, 26 nov 2020 -- The Bundestag has voted today on the Unitary Patent, the third attempt to validate software patents in Europe. * European Greens against software patents Open Letter to the German Greens on UPC and software patents: don't betray your voters and your promises Dear Members of the German Greens in the Bundestag,Dear Members of the Greens in the European Parliament, There is a vote this afternoon at 3PM on the ratification by Germany of the UPC. * [Deutsch] Is Germany competing with Hungary and Poland on the "Worst Rule of Law Award" with its rushed ratification of the Unitary Patent? PDF version here: ffii-upc-bundestag-europeDownload "The possibility to sue an administrative body, such as the EPO, for maladministration before the courts is one of the fundamental pillars of our western democracies, also called the "Rule of Law" (TFEUart2) and [..] is spectacularly absent from the Unified Patent Court." * [noswpat] Donate now! to save Europe from Software Patents, says FFII FFII is calling on urgent donations to crowdfund a Constitutional Complaint against the third attempt to impose software patents in Europe, via the Unified Patent Court (UPC). * [800px-B] Germany will violate 3 international agreements with the Unitary Patent, says FFII Germany set to vote on the Unitary Patent Court (UPC), a proposal that would kill jobs and innovation in software. Read more on our blog ... FFII Chapters * FFII France * FFII Germany * FFII Sweden * FFII United Kingdom About The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure e.V. (FFII) is an organization defending your right to a free and competitive software market since 1999 by working towards genuine open standards, the exclusion of software patents and the development of a digital public infrastructure. The FFII's contributions enabled the rejection of the EU software patent directive in July 2005, working closely with the European Parliament and many partners from industry and civil society. CNET awarded the FFII the Outstanding contribution to software development prize for this work. The FFII has chapters and partnerships in more than 20 countries and represents over 1000 members. Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Join 1,824 other subscribers Email Address [ ] Subscribe * * * * * (c) Copyright 2021, Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure. The content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 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