The Unified Patent Court

Information & guidance

The Unified Patent Court – what’s it all about?

The Unified Patent Court (UPC) has jurisdiction over disputes concerning the infringement and validity of European patents, including Unitary Patents. As a central part of the Unitary Patent System, it is intended to make patent proceedings in Europe more efficient and consistent.

But how is this still relatively young court structured and how does it work? When does it have jurisdiction, and when does it not? What enforcement options are available to right holders, and what defense options are available to defendants?

In the following articles, you will find an overview of jurisdiction, proceedings, costs, enforcement and defense in the UPC system. If you have any further questions, we would be happy to advise you personally.

The Unified Patent Court

What you need to know!

UPC: Enforcement possibilities for right holders

The UPC system offers a variety of enforcement measures, including the issuance of preliminary and permanent injunctions, damage awards and orders to render information and account. The following provides for a short overview of some o these available measures …

Costs and reimbursement in the new UPC system

The parties to a proceeding must pay court fees for the proceeding. These shall be paid in advance unless otherwise specified in the Rules of Procedure. If a party has not paid the prescribed court fees, it may be excluded from further participation in the proceedings. The court fees for proceedings before the Unified Patent Court (UPC) consist of a fixed fee and a fee based on the value in dispute …

Competence of the UPC

In principle, since the entry into force of the Agreement, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) has had exclusive jurisdiction over civil proceedings relating to European patents, unitary patents, supplementary protection certificates for products protected by such patents and European patent applications. The scope of exclusive competence includes, inter alia, actions for actual or threatened infringement and related defenses, actions for a declaration of non-infringement, …

Jurisdiction of the UPC

With regard to jurisdiction of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), a distinction must be made between the international jurisdiction of the UPC, the subject-matter jurisdiction, the jurisdiction in relation to courts of Member States with regard to non-unitary European patents, and the jurisdiction of the individual chambers of the Court of First Instance among themselves …

Applicability and enforcement of decisions of the UPC

Decisions of the UPC are directly applicable in all contracting member states. Decisions based on non-unitary European patents are of course only applicable in member states in which the patent is validated at the time of the decision. Still, in both cases, the territorial applicability goes beyond individual …

Forum Shopping

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 …

Provisional measures and orders

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 …

UPC: Case management and 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 …

Structure and functionality of the UPC

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 …

UPC: Defence possibilities for defendants

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 …

Interplay between infringement and revocation proceedings in the Unitary Patent System

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 …

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