UPC Newsletter - August 2024
It’s been a busy summer at the Unified Patent Court since our first newsletter in June.
UPC Statistics
The UPC has updated its filing statistics up to the end of July.
Up to then, a total of 170 infringement actions have been filed, in 85 of which there has been a counterclaim for revocation of the patent. There have been 41 standalone revocation actions, with the newly-opened Milan Central Division receiving its first case. There have been 39 applications for provisional measures (provisional injunctions and preserving evidence).
The Munich local division continues to dominate with 67 infringement actions and 14 applications for provisional measures, followed by Düsseldorf (36 infringement actions and 7 applications for provisional measures) and Mannheim (24 infringement actions). ?At the other end, of the table, the Lisbon local division has received its first case, and it together with Helsinki and Copenhagen have just one case each. Ljubljana continues to have no cases.
The Court of Appeal has been busy and has received 4 appeals of final decisions, 24 appeals related to proceedings for provisional and protective measures, and 48 procedural appeals of various types.
UPC Decisions
Turning to the decisions and orders issued by the court, the most striking news is that the first full decisions on the merits have been issued. Six have emerged so far, of which three have resulted in the patent being revoked, and three in the patent being upheld in amended form – of these three, one was a standalone revocation action, in one infringement was not challenged, and in one the infringement action is proceeding separately and a decision is awaited. At this early stage, the success rate for patentees seems quite low.
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The first decision came from the Düsseldorf local division. A patent relating to shower trays was upheld in amended form and infringement was not contested. The next day the Paris local division revoked a patent concerning glucose monitoring systems, and shortly after the Munich local division revoked a divisional patent on similar grounds. An Edwards Lifesciences patent on prosthetic heart valves was maintained in amended form. And a patent on cold chain monitoring systems was maintained in amended form in a standalone revocation action at the Paris Central Division.
Other noteworthy decisions and orders that we have reported concern:
UPDATE
We have added a new feature to the reports of decisions and orders on the Knowledge Hub Latest section, where you can search by the topics of each judgment using the menu on the right.