Before September 1, 2024, any Unitary Patent (UP) registration will cover the existing 17 UPC Member States, excluding Romania. After September 1, 2024, new Unitary Patent registrations will cover the territory of 18 Member States, including Romania (the second UP generation) Romania has ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent...
Unified Patent Court – Update January 2024
UPC – Case Load – Update Since its inception in June 2023, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) has been actively engaged in handling a variety of cases, showcasing a significant workload that underscores its importance in the field of intellectual property law. The latest update shows that the UPC has...
EPO – Acceleration of Oppositions
The European Patent Office (EPO) announced on 7 November 2023 a new policy concerning accelerated processing of oppositions where an infringement or revocation action has been instituted before the Unified Patent Court or a national court or competent authority of a contracting state. This is a change to the current...
Irish Referendum to join Unified Patent Court
The Irish government approved on January 23rd a proposal to hold a constitutional referendum in June on Ireland’s participation in the Unified Patent Court. The referendum will be held alongside the European and local elections in the country. The Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA), providing for the setting...
Staying Proceedings at the Unitary Patent Court
Under what conditions can the Unified Patent Court (UPC) stay a decision when opposition proceedings are pending in the European Patent Office (EPO)? That question faced the Central Division (Munich) of the European UPC in Astellas ./. Healios (Case No. UPC_CFI_80/2023). Under Article 33(10) UPCA and Rule 295 sub a...
Irish Referendum to join Unified Patent Court in 2024
Currently, Ireland is not a member of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), although the country is a long-standing member of the European Union. As we have already reported, the UPC is a new court that deals with the infringement and validity of European patents and unitary patents, which are patents...
Protective Letters and Patent Infringement
A protective letter is a legal submission that can be filed by an alleged infringer in a patent infringement case. Its purpose is to provide the court with information about the alleged infringer’s position on the patent in question. The letter can include arguments against infringement of the patent, about the...
Trade Fairs, the European Unified Patent Court and Infringement
Recent decisions in the local divisions of the European Unified Patent Court demonstrate that the UPC system is patent (plaintiff) friendly and is prepared to grant emergency injunctions at short notice to stop alleged infringers from showcasing products on trade fairs. Indeed, the first preliminary injunction issued by the UPC...
First decision of the UPC Appeal Court in Luxemburg!
French company Sanofi has been battling US corporation Amgen on multiple fronts concerning rights to life science patents. The Unified Patent Court (UPC) of Appeal based in Luxemburg has now handed down its first decision overruling a decision of the local UPC division in Munich rejecting the request of one...
Preliminary Injunctions at the UPC in light of the ECJ’s Phoenix Contact decision
The first decisions of the European Unified Patent Court (UPC) relating to preliminary injunctions have been issued and, as could be expected, these decisions were issued in proceedings in which a party seeks interim relief against an alleged patent infringer. Last year, on 28 April 2022, the European Court of...