Gide x Regimbeau – Patent Litigation: Speaker at the conference organized by the AAPI, ASPI and CNCPI in April 2024 on the UPC’s essential platform: the CMS (Case Management System), a new interface with which practitioners need to become familiar with
Because submissions before the Unified Patent Jurisdiction ("UPC" or "Jurisdiction") can only be lodged through the Jurisdiction's case management system, which can be accessed from the following website: https://cms.unified-patent-court.org, to become familiar with the "CMS" (Case Management System) is essential for practitioners.
The CMS was launched on 1st March 2023, so that the parties' representatives could register.
By the end of August 2023, many of them had done so, with 5,300 party representatives registered in the CMS. As soon as the CMS opens, patent holders who want to benefit from the opt-out can register their choice before any litigation before the UPC.
On 4 April 2024 at the Robert Badinter auditorium of the Maison des avocats in Paris, the Association des Avocats en Propriété Industrielle (AAPI), the Spécialistes en Propriété Intellectuelle de l'Industrie (ASPI) and the Compagnie Nationale des Conseils en Propriété Industrielle (CNCPI) organized a training course devoted exclusively to the CMS.
The presentation was made in the presence of Mrs. Camille Lignières, President of the Paris Local Division of the UPC; Mrs. Carine Gillet, Judge at the Paris Local Division; and Mrs Charlotte Ferhat, Registrar at the Paris Local Division.
UPC Representative Mr. Emmanuel Larere, IP partner at Gide, who took part in the first round table on initial feedback from French actors involved in the first cases before the UPC at a conference organized by the AAPI and ASPI on 7 December 2023 (click HERE to read our article on this event), once again shared his experience, this time with regard to the use and functions of the interface for communicating with the UPC, and in particular:
- the process for registering as a representative before the UPC directly in the CMS;
- how to access the CMS and the system authentication process, which is based on a strong authentication scheme, with a certificate used for authentication (necessary for login) and a certificate for electronically signing documents that the user wishes to upload to the CMS, using the RPVA key for French lawyers;
- the presentation of the interface;
- search for cases in progress;
- creation of a workflow;
- the "legal team" functionality from 28 November 2023, which allows UPC representatives and other users, such as legal assistants, to access and work on cases before the Court as a team;
- the filing process and the tabs to be completed;
- the ability to upload several documents at once from a single file;
- how obtaining a file number;
- UPC's communication procedures, contact with the Registry, verification of files uploaded by the Registry and follow-up of files;
- the auto-correction/update function for the data of the representative entered in the CMS in a current case, etc.
This conference was also an opportunity to highlight the occasional malfunctions of the CMS which, as any dematerialized system, is subject to computer breakdowns, which are not without concrete consequences since the UPC regularly takes into account the difficulties encountered by users with the interface in order to adjust the starting point of time limits before the Jurisdiction.
Furthermore, the speakers pointed out that, due to the large number of users accessing the CMS at the same time, the UPC's case management system is from time to time slow and, even though it does not stop working, it was sometimes difficult to access all of the system's functionalities.
These comments have proved beneficial, as the CMS has been reconfigured to better meet the needs of the number of users who request the UPC's services.
Finally, the participants recalled that training courses for all users are offered regularly on the UPC website, to help them use the functions of this new tool.
