The Unified Patent Court (UPC)

The Unified Patent Court is an international court common to the European Union Member States party to the Agreement of 19 February 2013. It began operating on 1 June 2023. It hears infringement and revocation actions relating to European patents with unitary effect and, subject to an opt-out, to classical European patents, as well as to the supplementary protection certificates attached to them.

One decision, a pan-European effect

A single decision takes effect across all participating States: the injunction as much as the revocation. That centralisation reduces the cost and the duration of litigation that previously had to be fought country by country; it correspondingly increases exposure, since a patent revoked is revoked everywhere at once. The calculation is therefore not the same for a proprietor going on the attack and for one defending a portfolio.

A compressed timetable

The written procedure runs on mandatory deadlines, and the Court's stated objective is a decision on the merits within a year of the action being brought. The practical consequence is simple: the technical and evidential preparation must be complete before the action is started, not after. A case built during proceedings before the UPC is a case already behind.

Opt-out

During the transitional period, the proprietor of a classical European patent may withdraw it from the Court's jurisdiction. That choice, reversible under conditions, is made in light of the portfolio, the markets covered, the value of the patent and the risk of a revocation action. It is not automatic, and it should be revisited.

The Paris Local Division and the central division

France hosts a local division in Paris as well as a seat of the central division. An action may be brought there according to the place of infringement or the defendant's domicile. The choice between local and central division, like the choice between the Unified Patent Court and the Paris Judicial Court, is made case by case: language of proceedings, composition of the panel, duration, territorial reach of the decision and exposure to a counterclaim.

Evidence and provisional measures

The Court has its own instruments for preserving evidence and for provisional measures. Their logic differs from French law: assessment of validity at the interim stage, urgency, proportionality and the balancing of interests. An injunction may cover most of the European market, which shifts the stakes considerably compared with national interim relief.

How we act

Matthieu Dhenne acts as a representative before the Unified Patent Court. The firm appears for claimants and defendants alike, in coordination with national proceedings and with oppositions before the European Patent Office.