Established as a single patent jurisdiction across a significant proportion of the European market, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) presents opportunities for the efficient enforcement and opposition of European patent rights.
With a proven record of top-tier patent litigation experience in the UK, as well as a renowned practice of developing and implementing both offensive and defensive European patent litigation strategies, Powell Gilbert is perfectly placed to advise and represent clients in litigation in the UPC.
The UPC has multiple divisions, and was developed as a compromise of various European national laws and procedures. Assembling a team of appropriately skilled European litigators will therefore be essential for successfully pursuing cases in the new system, ensuring the availability of relevant procedural knowledge, familiarity with the practices of local judges and appropriate technical support, with the strength in depth to respond to potentially aggressive deadlines.
Our team in London has a pre-eminent reputation for advising and coordinating the most complex and high-stakes multi-jurisdictional patent litigation in the European market. Combined with this, our Dublin office provides a base within the UPC jurisdiction from where we act for clients across the various national, regional, and central divisions of the UPC, bringing to bear a wealth of patent litigation experience and access to a deep bench of technically and scientifically qualified lawyers. All of our partners are admitted to practice in Ireland and are registered as UPC representatives.
In addition to our own pool of highly experienced and technically-astute lawyers, we can draw from a flexible network of renowned law firms and patent specialists, enabling us to assemble the most relevant expertise to represent our clients in whichever division of the UPC is most appropriate. We believe this gives us the flexibility to devise optimal strategies in selecting where cases are litigated and to ensure our clients have the best team to handle their litigation.
Our lawyers have been involved in the UPC since its inception, including contributing to EPO training materials, participating in mock trials and training the new judges. We are also contributing to a key practitioners guide for UPC litigation and frequently lecture on this topic at international conferences.
Even though the UPC commenced only in June 2023, we have been involved in a number of cases before the new court, including:
- The first two cases brought before the Nordic-Baltic Regional Division
- The first case brought before the Milan Local Division
- The first case brought before the Helsinki Local Division
- A number of cases brought before the German local divisions