Evidence is a key battleground in virtually all patent litigation cases. As a Court designed to combine the best and most efficient features of the main EU national patent litigation systems, the Unified Patent Court (“UPC”)...more
6/30/2025
/ Data Preservation ,
Dawn Raids ,
Discovery ,
Duty to Preserve ,
EU ,
Evidence ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Legal Technology ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
Unified Patent Court
The doctrine of equivalents is a staple patent law principle, addressing the tension between providing fair protection to innovative ideas and ensuring legal certainty for third parties. However, like most patent laws, the...more
12/18/2024
/ Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Doctrine of Equivalents ,
EU ,
European Patent Convention ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Inventions ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
The Hague ,
Unified Patent Court ,
Unified Patent System
In a November 12, 2024, decision, the Court of Appeal ("CoA") of the Unified Patent Court ("UPC") has clarified under which circumstances a European patent that has been opted out and has been the subject of legal proceedings...more
The Unified Patent Court ("UPC") and the unitary patent—which came into force in June 2023—were created at the request of European industry in order to benefit from a single title (the unitary patent) covering the territory...more
The European Patent Office ("EPO") currently requires applicants to adapt descriptions to allowable claims. This practice is risky, expensive, and not clearly grounded in the law....more
While the genus antibody claim was effectively killed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Amgen v. Sanofi, it lives on in Europe despite a few recent setbacks at the European Patent Office ("EPO") and the Unified Patent Court...more
On February 28, 2024, following the European Commission's four 2023 proposals, the European Parliament adopted a legislative resolution on the amended proposal to create a Unitary Supplementary Protection Certificate ("USPC")...more
The European Patent Office ("EPO") has committed to specific timelines for its new practice of accelerating opposition proceedings....more
The UPC, a single patent court for European Union Member States, has published the first statistics on its case load since its establishment in 2023. Between June 1, 2023, and January 31, 2024, a total of 196 cases were filed...more
In Short -
The Situation: With the introduction of the Unified Patent Court ("UPC") system in Europe, the co-ownership of patents will have material effect on patents with unitary effect ("Unitary Patent")....more
In Short -
The Situation: While the national case laws of most Unified Patent Court ("UPC") Member States generally accept infringement actions by licensees, the scope and requirements of such actions differ greatly. The...more
Judges were recruited from across Europe and appointed in accordance with the decisions of the UPC Administrative Committee. The UPC will be led by German Federal Court of Justice Judge Klaus Grabinski as president of the...more
The creation of a new European Unified Patent Court (“UPC”) and a new patent with unitary effect (“Unitary Patent”), in which almost all member states of the European Union participate, is the most important change in the...more
The previously contemplated fee for opting out of "classical" European patents from the Unified Patent Court ("UPC") system has been abolished by the UPC Preparatory Committee. The UPC Case Management System will also allow...more
The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office has decided that the exclusion from patentability of essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals now also extends to plant or animal...more
Context: French Decree No. 2018-1126 of 11 December 2018 on the protection of trade secrets, enacted in application of Act No. 2018-670 of 30 July 2018, establishes rules to preserve trade secrets in the context of civil and...more
The Situation: For the pharmaceutical industry, supplementary protection certificates ("SPC") are probably the most valuable IP rights. While the scope of protection of an SPC is determined separately from the scope of...more
6/18/2018
/ Biosimilars ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Exports ,
Generic Drugs ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Supplementary Protection Certificate ,
Transparency
On April 26, 2018, the United Kingdom ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement ("UPCA"). This act removed any doubts concerning the United Kingdom's determination to participate in the agreement post-Brexit. However, the...more
The Situation: The French Intellectual Property Office ("IPO") previously refused to adjust the expiration date of a granted supplementary protection certificate ("SPCs") when it had been calculated on the date of grant of...more