A guide to UPC patent news

by Haseltine Lake Kempner Haseltine Lake Kempner

The unified patent court is expected to be implemented in April 2023. Here is some of the latest news about UPC.

The new judicial system will become operational in April 2023. UPC is an international court enforcing both traditional European patents and unitary patents. In this new system, the court can decide on the infringement and validity of all participating EU members. All 24 members are participating in the new system except Poland, Spain, and Croatia (and Croatia will possibly join at a later stage). The UPC patent court is a unique international court for patent litigation. It is a single court consisting of both first and second instances, with multiple locations.

The traditional national court system decides on the infringement and validity of European patents; there is a lack of legal certainty, and it's an expensive procedure. The unified patent court plans to solve these shortcomings by creating a specialized patent court with exclusive jurisdiction for litigation relating to unitary and European patents. If you are looking for UPC patent news, contact up@hlk-ip.com.

The Unified Patent Court aims to reduce costs and avoid parallel patent litigation in different member states. The UPC will be divided into local, regional, and central divisions. Local and regional divisions will make all the decisions of the UPC based across Europe.

UPC Patent news

The UPC is expected to start on April 01, 2023, and the administrative committee has issued a roadmap of the essential activities. Until now, 16 other states have deposited their ratification instruments, so 17 states (including France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands) will participate in the UPC and unitary patent system from April 01, 2023. Find out more about the Unitary Patent regulation and other recent developments in the system at up@hlk-ip.com.

The UPC is expected to start on April 01, 2023, with the Sunrise period beginning on January 01, 2023. In the sunrise period, three months will be given to the patent holders who decide to opt-out of any existing European patents.

The unified patent court also provides a transitional period in which the UPC will share the jurisdiction with national courts. As per Article 83, the transitional period may last for seven years from the beginning of the UPC, which means that it will end around April 01, 2030.

The UPC Agreement provides a transitional period in which it will share jurisdiction with national courts. After five years of UPC, there will be a consultation with the users in which the transitional period can be extended to seven years, up to April 01, 2037. It also marks the end of when applications to opt-out can be made; they must be lodged one month before the end.

Conclusion

It is very critical to understand the impact of this new UPC system on your businesses. At HLK, our fully integrated European patent litigation team is ready to advise on all aspects of the practical and strategic issues you should consider in preparation for the UPC. You can contact us for further information at up@hlk-ip.com.