The Unified Patent Court (UPC) is a planned future court common to EU Member States which participate in the Unitary Patent system, and it will be part of their judicial system. After a transitional period of 7 years or 14 years at most, it will have exclusive competence in respect of traditional European patents and European patents with unitary effect (Unitary Patents). The UPC is based on the Unified Patent Court Agreement. The Unitary Patent system and the UPC are planned to start functioning once certain ratification conditions have been fulfilled.
Just over a year after the UPC Agreement came into force, the Paris local division handed down UPC’s first decision on an infringement action. Unfortunately for the patentee, the court dismissed his action, ruling that the patent invoked was null and void. In this case, two manufacturers, DEXCOM and ABBOTT, were involved in a dispute…
In June 2023, the UPC – at the Düsseldorf Local Division – granted its first ex parte provisional injunction (“PI”) in myStromer AG v Revolt Zycling AG (“myStromer v Revolt”), despite the defendant having previously filed a protective letter. A year on from that decision, and with only one other ex parte PI decision having…
The reasons for the decision are now available in the case of Ballino v UEFA and others, following an oral hearing on 3rd of June 2004 in the Hamburg local division. As was previously known, the panel comprising Presiding Judge Sabine Klepsch, Judge-rapporteur Dr. Stefan Schilling, and legally qualified Judge Samuel Granata dismissed the application…
In a decision issued today, the Düsseldorf Local Division has ordered the first ever permanent injunction at the UPC following a hearing on 16 May 2024. The injunction covers seven UPC member states: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxemburg and the Netherlands. Notably, Germany was not included in the claim. The patent in question in…
Following months of speculation, EPO Board of Appeal 3.2.01 yesterday issued decision T 439/22 referring questions to the Enlarged Board of Appeal on the extent to which the description and drawings should be used in claim interpretation. The claim feature at issue was: “in which the aerosol-forming substrate comprises a gathered sheet”. The key…
It has been about a year since the UPC issued its first PI decision, making it a good time to reflect on the case law created so far. The year has seen PI applications being made in front of a range of Local Divisions, including Düsseldorf, The Hague, Helsinki, Vienna, and Hamburg, with most determined…
Introduction On 19 June 2024, The Hague Local Division handed down a judgment in a dispute brought by Abbott Diabetes Care Inc. (“Abbott”) against Sibio Technology Limited and Umedwings Netherlands BV (together “Sibio”). Abbott sought to obtain a preliminary injunction (as well as certain other provisional measures) against Sibio, relying on its patent EP 2…
Following up on Thorsten’s blog post yesterday, I report on the second day of the Oxviews 9th Intellectual Property and Competition Forum, which took place in the Justizpalast in Munich on 19 June. This impressive building deserves the name Palast (in English “Palace”), and was a fitting venue for this meeting of thought leaders in…
On 30 April 2024, the UPC’s Local Division Düsseldorf handed down a new chapter in the 10x Genomics saga. This time the case is not against NanoString (see this post on the lost appeal) but against the US-based company Curio (see this post on the earlier language appeal in this case). The central issue before…
On 3 June 2024, the UPC’s Hamburg Local Division rejected a PI application against UEFA (Union des Associations Européennes de Football) and Kinexon GmBH (a technology partner) in regard to the use of video-assistance referee (VAR) technology at the upcoming European Championship in Germany. The application for preliminary relief concerned EP 1 944 067 (EP…
