Like citizens across Europe, the business world too has had to come to terms with the emergency caused by the Coronavirus. What responses will legal and intellectual property professionals provide to address the complexities of the new post-lockdown reality?
On 9 March 2020, the measures to contain COVID-19 and restrict movement were definitively extended to the whole of Italy. On that same Monday, 9 March, thousands of experts and non-experts alike wondered how administrative and judicial proceedings – both national and international – with their procedures and timelines, would manage to adapt to these new needs.
Lockdown & IP
At national level, a first response came two days later from the Directorate-General for the Protection of Industrial Property, which suspended, for the proceedings within the remit of the Italian Patent and Trademark Office, all deadlines falling due between 9 March and 3 April 2020.
As the epidemiological situation worsened, those provisions were expanded both in time – with the suspension being extended to the entire period between 23 February and 15 April – and in scope. Decree-Law No. 18/2020 (which, among other things, suspended procedural deadlines between 9 March and 15 April) also brought the mandatory time limits of trademark opposition proceedings within that suspension. As a result, industrial property rights expiring between 31 January and 15 April were to retain their validity, on an exceptional basis, until 15 June.
Confirmations in the same direction quickly followed from the various European and international bodies responsible for the protection of intellectual property.
As early as 15 March, the EPO (European Patent Office) decided that all oral proceedings scheduled up to 17 April before the Boards of Appeal, based in Haar, Germany, could no longer be held on its premises. Furthermore, all oral proceedings scheduled before the Examining and Opposition Divisions would be postponed up to that same date, unless already confirmed to be held by videoconference.
Similarly, the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) intervened by way of Decision No. EX-20-3 of 16 March by the Executive Director, providing that all deadlines falling between 9 March and 30 April would be automatically postponed to 1 May.
Finally, at international level, the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) issued its provisions on 20 March 2020 to address the Coronavirus emergency, activating its "business continuity protocol" and shifting almost all of its activities online.
What is the future of civil proceedings?
From the analysis of these provisions, it is clear that the future of public bodies, as well as of the judiciary, is increasingly oriented towards a definitive digital modernisation and, consequently, digitalisation of services. From a strictly judicial perspective, while making electronic civil proceedings mandatory was already an important step, the future of judicial proceedings may lie precisely in the development of the measures adopted, due to force majeure, during the physical and administrative lockdown of these months.
In addition to the ex officio adjournment of almost all civil and criminal hearings pending between 9 March and 15 April 2020, Article 83 of Decree-Law No. 18/2020 provides that, for the period following that suspension, up to 30 June, the heads of judicial offices may adopt organisational measures – affecting both the scheduling and the conduct of hearings – in order to avoid gatherings and close contact between people. Particularly interesting, from a forward-looking perspective, is the provision in paragraph 7 of that article, whereby civil hearings for which the presence of parties other than counsel and litigants is not required may be held via remote connection.