From September 10 to 12, 2014, the 17th European Patent Judges' Symposium was held in Tallinn, Estonia, and Judge Yoshinori Tomita participated on behalf of the IP High Court. It was attended by approx. 90 persons consisting of patent judges from 27 member states of the European Patent Convention and representatives from the European Patent Office. The participants were engaged in vigorous discussions on a wide range of issues: reports and discussions on the progress of preparations (e.g. the making of rules and education of judges) for the Unified Patent Court, which is scheduled to be established; debates on legal issues which may occur in connection with the establishment of the Unified Patent Court, on trends in judicial precedent regarding Supplementary Protection Certificates, and on a specific case study focusing on the jurisdiction and handling of the issue of inventive step; and presentations on recent trends in European countries. Judge Tomita joined the debates on the case study and also discussed patent-related issues and differences in patent systems with the representatives from other countries.