The Select Committee of the Administrative Council held its sixth meeting in Munich on 10 and 11 December 2013.
The committee finished its first reading of the Draft Rules relating to Unitary Patent Protection, noted comments on the rules supplied by delegations and users and began a second reading. These draft Rules relate mainly to the procedures that will be administrated by the EPO in carrying out the tasks that the Member States will entrust to the EPO in accordance with article 9.1 of the EU Regulation N° 1257/2012.
It discussed the future operation of the compensation scheme for costs for translations filed in an EU official language which is not one of the official languages of the EPO and reached consensus on a number of issues relating to the future operation of this compensation scheme.
The committee exchanged views on issues and possible measures at Member States level which could accompany the Unitary Patent Protection.
It also discussed the EPO’s document of draft principles for the budgeting and accounting of the revenues from and the expenditure of administering the Unitary Patent Protection.
Finally, it decided to admit as observers the following EPC contracting states: Switzerland, Turkey, Spain, Albania, San Marino, Italy, Norway, Croatia, Monaco and Serbia. Other contracting states would be admitted upon request.
Source: http://www.epo.org/
