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The Select Committee for the Unitary Patent Goes Live

The Select Committee of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation dealing with the unitary patent held its first session today at the EPO in Munich. For the user community and for the EPO, this is a further milestone after the adoption of the unitary patent package in December 2012 and the signing last month of the international agreement on the Unified Patent Court. EPO President Benoît Battistelli welcomed the start of the Select Committee's work, which, he said, "shows the strong commitment of the participant member states to keep up the momentum and bring the unitary patent project to a successful conclusion".

President Battistelli also congratulated Jerome Debrulle, head of the Belgian delegation, and Lubos Knoth, head of the Slovak delegation, on their election for a three-year term as, respectively, Chair and Vice-Chair of the Select Committee.

The Committee started the discussion of its rules of procedure and the planning of its further work in the coming months. The EPO has been entrusted with granting and administering unitary patents and will continue to actively support the process.