Uncertainty as to the new Unitary EU-wide Patent (UP) and the Unified Patent Court (UPC)

In 2002, Donald Rumsfeld stated:

Reports that say there's -- that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things that we know that we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know.


In a post in 2014, concerning the new Unitary EU-wide Patent (UP) and the Unified Patent Court (UPC), Tim Hewson and Tom Burt utilize that quote to evoke uncertainties facing EP patent applicants in the coming regime. They note

Starting from sometime between about 2015 and about 2016 you will be facedwith new decisions when the EuropeanPatent Office grants your patents. Those decisions are therefore applicable to thepatent applications which you aredrafting and filing today.