Global Patent Firm Murgitroyd Officially Opens New Office in Munich, Patent Capital of Europe

MUNICH, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On 31 January the global intellectual property firm Murgitroyd will officially launch new offices in Munich, the "capital city" for patents as far as both Germany and the EU are concerned. The launch of the firm's new, enlarged Munich office comes at a key moment in the establishment of the European unitary patent (or “EU patent”).

The new EU-wide patent will make it cheaper and faster to apply for and enforce a patent within the EU.

The new system will reduce translation and maintenance costs and provides for a new Unitary Patent Court with divisions in Munich, London and Paris. The Court will have the right to decide all issues with respect to EU patents and may be up and running as early as 2014. Murgitroyd's new offices are extremely well placed for access to the Court once it opens for business.

The new offices are located in the ATMOS centre, on Munich’s Hackerbrücke (Hacker Bridge), just a stone's throw away from the European Patent Office on the other side of the bridge. The firm's new office positions Murgitroyd at the heart of the EU patent examination and patent protection process.

In addition to its Munich office, Murgitroyd has also recently opened a London City office and plans to open in Paris in the near future, further aligning it with the future key EU patent hub locations.

As Munich-based Director for Murgitroyd, Graham Murnane, explains, this is an exciting moment, since having been decades in preparation, and the subject of endless political wrangling, the European unitary patent is finally set to become a reality.

Murnane points out that clients stand to gain enormously once the unitary patent becomes EU law. Most importantly, they will be able to take legal action in a local unitary patent court to stop Europe-wide infringement of their European patent. A first instance court in one country can grant an order stopping an infringing activity, and can award damages for infringement, throughout the EU.

Under the new system, there will be a single examination and grant process, carried out by the European Patent Office, and no requirement to validate the patent separately in each European country after the patent is granted. This is in contrast to the present system of separate national patent applications, or a single European patent application which must be converted to separate national patents after grant, with separate infringement proceedings necessary in each country in order to enforce the patent across Europe.

The unitary patent will be valid across all participating countries (currently 25 of the 27 member countries, with Spain and Italy not participating due to the focus on English, German and French as the three designated languages for unitary patent applications).

However, Murnane points out that businesses should take advice before going for the unitary patent route, since the other side of the coin is that the patent can be revoked across the whole of Europe in a single revocation procedure at the Unitary Patent Court. After a 7-year transition period the Unitary Patent Courts will be the forum for litigation of conventional European patents as well, so all centrally granted European patents will be subject to this same risk of a single revocation action. Businesses will need to look at the pros and cons of national patent filings as opposed to EPO filings to get the full picture.

Jamie LeLiever, Head of Global Sales and Marketing at Murgitroyd commented: “We are excited to be expanding further in this key European market at such an important moment in the establishment of the EU Patent - as well as placing us at the heart of the new EU patent process, our expanded German location will allow us to better serve our current clients and to offer our services to key new clients in Germany, in particular our award-winning IP Portal service which has seen great success in the US market”.

LeLiever will attend Murgitroyd’s Munich launch event on the 31^st January along with many other key staff from the firm’s Munich office and other international offices and encourages those with an interest in knowing more to come along to meet with the team. Details of the launch event can be found on Murgitroyd’s website (murgitroyd.com).

Note to Editors

Journalists interested in developing feature articles about the new EU Patent or Murgitroyd’s German expansion are welcome to contact Fiona McKenzie, Marketing Manager, Tel. [phone], who will arrange briefings/interviews with Graham Murnane and his colleagues.

Press are also welcome to attend the launch event on 31^st January – please contact Fiona McKenzie to register.

Further information from:

About Murgitroyd: www.murgitroyd.com

About the EU Patent: www.eupatent.com