IP Summit: What does the UPC hold for the pharma and chemical industries?
At the PanEuropean IP Summit on Tuesday, a panel discussion revealed different attitudes toward the introduction of the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court (UPC).
Ivan Burnside, senior director and assistant general patent counsel at Eli Lilly, welcomed the court, describing it as a “natural evolutionary step”, but said pharmaceutical companies are unlikely to jump in feet first.
The pharmaceutical system has relatively few patents per product when compared with high-tech products, so each patent is more valuable, Burnside said. It is important that there is some predictability in the decisions the court renders, he added.
John Meidahl, divisional director at Lundbeck ,whose citalopram product brings in two-thirds of the company's revenue, said he would decide what route to take on a case-by-case basis.
But joining the UPC late as a pharmaceutical company may be “dangerous”, said Steven Cattoor, a partner at Hoyng Monegier LLP in Brussels, as it becomes more difficult to change the case law.
However, Udo Meyer, senior vice president at chemical company BASF, said that the company won't be opting out of the court. “Somebody has to get it started,” he said.
The PanEuropean IP Summit takes place in Paris from December 9 to 11 2013.
