In the context of actions for infringement before the Unified Patent Court (UPC), forum shopping means the possibility for a plaintiff to choose a particular division out of several competent divisions for his action. Reasons for choosing one division over another are based on the wiggle room and discretion that the rules on procedure …
In patent infringement proceedings before the Unified Patent Court (UPC) a claimant can, in particular, be awarded claims to injunction, information and damages as well as recall and destruction. However, the rules governing the UPC provide provisional measures and orders which can be applied for before or besides main infringement proceedings …
The written procedure of the, in practice, most important proceedings, actions for infringement of patents together with counterclaims for revocation and applications to amend, is illustrated in the Rules of Procedure …
The Unified Patent Court (UPC) consists of a Court of First Instance, a Court of Appeal and a Registry. The Court of First Instance comprises a central chamber sitting in Paris and a division sitting in Munich, as well as several local and regional chambers. All the panels of the Court of First Instance are multinational and composed of three judges …
As a formal ground for defence, defendant may challenge the jurisdiction and competence of the UPC, as the competence of the national courts continues to apply for all actions that are not listed in the UPC agreements, such as any actions based on opted-out EP patents …
The introduction of the unitary patent system paves ways for taking many different routes towards a European patent strategy. Find out which routes are available!
In the Unitary Patent System, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) has jurisdiction over both infringement and revocation actions. However, under certain conditions, an infringement action and a parallel revocation action may be decided by different divisions of the UPC …
With the deposit of the instrument of ratification by Austria as the thirteenth member on January 18, 2022, the UPC had already entered into force provisionally in accordance with the “Protocol to the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court concerning Provisional Application” (PPA). Under this provisional applicability, preparations for the operation of the UPC were underway. In particular, the UPC Administrative Committee already officially confirmed the locations of the Court of First Instance and adopted the Rules of Procedure and the Table of Costs, which entered into force on September 1, 2022. Also, the judges’ disbursement and the finalization of the IT infrastructure already took place within the framework of provisional applicability.
With the deposit of the instrument of ratification by Germany on February 17, 2023, the preparations were completed. Thus, the 3-month “sunrise period” started and the Unified Patent Court could finally start its work on the first day of the fourth month after the deposit of the instrument of ratification on June 1, 2023, according to Art. 89 EPCÜ.
Already during the “sunrise period” an opt-out could be declared ahead of time in order to keep patents out of the UPC system and to prevent a central attack on the patent directly after the entry into force of the UPC. This op-out can be withdrawn at a later date.
Preliminary application of UPC starts with 13th ratification (Austria)
Preparatory work
Deposit of German ratification document (February 17, 2023)
3 months, starting with the first of March 2023
First day of fourth month after deposit
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