Article about the UPC in The Patent Lawyer, issue Sept/Oct 2023

Dr. Michael Rüberg, Dr. Dennis Kretschmann and Dr. Matthias Hofmann explain in The Patent Lawyer Magazine, Sept/Oct 2023 issue, the successful launch of the European Unified Patent Court and strategic considerations for enforcing patents across the continent.

After more than 50 years of preparation, the European Unified Patent System will enter into force on June 1, 2023. The project of the century includes a new “European patent with unitary effect” (UP) and a “Unified Patent Court” (UPC), which will decide on the above-mentioned unitary patents as well as on all conventional European patents.

But what are the advantages of this European unitary patent system? Does it apply only to newly granted patents or also to existing bundle patents? What is the opt-out option?
BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT partners Dr. Michael Rüberg (attorney-at-law), Dr. Dennis Kretschmann and Dr. Matthias Hofmann (both patent attorneys) answer these and other questions in their article “The new European patent landscape: what companies should know” in the September/October issue of “The Patent Lawyer”.

In addition, the authors raise detailed strategic considerations as to whether and under what circumstances owners of traditional bundled packages should enforce questionable IP rights before the UPC or whether they would not be better advised to give preference to national proceedings.

Finally, Dr. Rüberg, Dr. Kretschmann and Dr. Hofmann give detailed tips for which patent applicants the unitary patent is worthwhile and for which not and discuss the interesting strategy of parallel filing in Germany and Europe.

Read the complete article in the attached PDF for download!