The Unified Patent Court's First Cases

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Jane Lambert

The Unified Patent Court opened its doors on 1 June 2023 (see The Unified Patent Court Opens Today 1 June 2023).  There have already been proceedings in both of the Central Divisions of the Court of First Instance in Paris and Munich as well as the local divisions in Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Helsinki, Milan, Munich and The Hague. There have also been hearings.

One of those hearings was in Helsinki where the court was scheduled to hear an application by the claimant for provisional measures and a preliminary objection from the defendant in an action that the Swiss company AIM Sport Vision AG has brought against Supponor Oy of Finland and others on 21 Sept 2023 (see Upcoming hearing at the UPC Local Division Helsinki posted on 12 Sept 2023).  Readers will recall that AIM Sport Vision AG sued Suppronor Oy in London earlier this year alleging infringement of  EP 3 295 663 B1.   I commented on the trial in Patents - AIM Sport Vision v Supponor on 5 Sept 2023.  According to the presiding judge's order of 28 Aug 2023, AIM Sport Vision complains of infringement of the same patent.

Occado and AutoStore were also against each other in London earlier in the year  (see Autostore Technology AS v Ocado Group Plc and others [2023] EWHC 716 (Pat) (30 March 2023).  I discussed the action in Patents - AutoStore Technology AS v Ocado Group Plc on 16 April 2023 in NIPC Law. Proceedings had been issued by Occado against AutoStore in Milan but these appear to have settled (see the minute of order of 11 Sept 2023).

The proceedings that have taken place so far have ranged from applications for orders for the preservation of evidence to directions for the conduct of the litigations.  They have been conducted in Dutch and Italian as well as English, French and German,  Anyone wishing to read those decisions will find them at "Decisions and Orders" on the Unified Patent Court website,

Readers wishing to discuss this topic may call me on +44 (0)20 7494 5252 during normal office hours or message me through my contact page at all other times.

The Unified Patent Court opens Today

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Jane Lambert

The Unified Patent Court opens its doors today.  It is now possible to apply for a European patent that covers the combined territories of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden known as a "unitary patent". Any dispute as to the validity of a unitary patent or whether it has been infringed can be determined by a single tribunal at the Central Division of the Court of First Instance in Paris or Munich or its local or regional divisions in the above contracting states.  Appeals from the judgments of that Court will lie to the Court of Appeal in Luxembourg.

The British government had signed the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court on 19 Feb 2013. Parliament had passed the Intellectual Property Act 2014  to enable the United Kingdom to ratify the Agreement.  On World Intellectual Property Day 2018, the Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP, in his capacity as Foreign Secretary, had actually deposited HM Government's instrument of ratification two years after the brexit referendum (see British Ratification of the UPC Agreement - Possibly the best thing to happen on World Intellectual Property Day 26 April 2018 NIPC News).  London was to host part of the Central Division of the Court of First Instance as well as one of possibly several local divisions for the United Kingdom.

The British government withdrew from the Agreement in 2020  (see Volte-Face on the Unified Patent Court Agreement 29 Feb 2020 NIPC News).  In the 7 years before the UK's withdrawal British lawyers and officials had contributed much to the Unified Patent Court and unitary patent project.  It is possible to detect British influence in similarities with the Civil Procedure Rules in some of the Rules of Procedure of the Unified Patent Court and in the templates or precedents for the orders of the Unified Patent Court.

Even though the UK is no longer participating in the project a single patent covering the territories of the three largest economies of the European Union will interest many British businesses.   As the Court will interpret and apply the European Patent Convention to which this country remains a party, its judgments will be of strong persuasive authority.  Perhaps for the same reason some of the decisions of our courts will be considered and in some cases followed by the Unified Patent Court.  Because of its importance to business owners and lawyers in the UK, I will follow and discuss the Court's judgments and other developments relating to unitary patents.

Anyone wishing to discuss this topic may call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact page,