UPC statistics

These indicators cover all decisions and orders of the Unified Patent Court recorded in UPC Litigation Watch since the Court opened on 1 June 2023. Data as of 26 September 2026.

Volume and pace

The Court has settled at around 75 decisions and orders per month since 2025, peaking at 111 in April 2025. September 2026 is partial, with data as of the 26th.

Year	First instance	Appeal	Total	Appeal share
2023 (from 1 June)	103	6	109	5.5%
2024	460	130	590	22.0%
2025	745	177	922	19.2%
2026 (to 26 September)	455	180	635	28.3%

The share of appeals in the Court’s overall output rose from 5.5% in 2023 to 28.3% over the first nine months of 2026.

Coverage of the database

The database is reconciled with the Court’s official register, which listed 2,286 decisions and orders on 26 September 2026. The table compares both sources year by year.

Year	Official register	UPC Litigation Watch
2023 (from 1 June)	109	109
2024	595	590
2025	938	922
2026 (to 26 September)	644	635

First instance divisions

Each division unfolds. Three features stand out. The four German local divisions account for 60.4% of first instance activity. Standalone revocation is litigated before the central division (Paris, Munich, Milan), while local divisions mostly hear infringement and provisional measures. Düsseldorf handles the largest number of distinct cases (119), Munich the largest volume of decisions.

5 first instance decisions or orders are published without a division stated in the register.

Types of proceedings

Headings come from the register. More than one decision in four is filed there without a usable type, mostly for 2023 and 2024: the volumes below are floors, not final shares.

Appeals before the Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal has issued 493 decisions and orders in 206 distinct appeal proceedings, against 534 first instance cases recorded over the same period. This ratio measures the intensity of appellate activity, not an appeal rate per case: a single case may generate several appeal proceedings, and appeals in a given year partly relate to cases from earlier years.

One appeal in three against an identified decision or order targets a procedural order (RoP 220.2) rather than a final decision, and 35 appeal proceedings ended in a withdrawal.

Standard essential patents and life sciences

Decisions on standard essential patents and in life sciences are collected in FRAND Litigation Watch and Pharma Litigation Watch. Their volumes are not shown here until the thematic classification of the 2023 and 2024 decisions is complete.

Method

The scope is the Court’s official register of decisions and orders, without editorial selection. A case corresponds to one docket number (UPC_CFI or UPC_CoA). Groupings by type of proceedings follow the register’s own headings, including their gaps, shown as such.

Two frequently requested indicators are deliberately not shown yet. Success rates (patent revocation, findings of infringement) require reading every decision on the merits, as the register does not record outcomes; that reading is under way and the module will be published once it covers all decisions on the merits. Appeal rates per division require linking each appeal to the first instance case it arises from, which the register does not publish in structured form; that reconciliation is also under way. The official decision, available from each entry, is the only authoritative source.