The German Constitutional Courtroom issued a landmark resolution with implications for a lot of firms doing enterprise in Europe on July 9, 2021. For many years, the European Fee and EU member states strived to create a pan-European Unified Patent Courtroom (UPC). After overcoming many hurdles, any wise commentator will probably be cautious in making statements about the way forward for the UPC. That mentioned, for the primary time in years it now seems that the pan-European patent litigation system might lastly come into being. That is significantly related for firms from the life sciences sector that are inclined to implement their blockbuster patents in parallel proceedings in probably the most related jurisdictions. The brand new system and the supply of pan-European injunctions signifies that claimants will be capable to transfer from 5 parallel instances to at least one. Nevertheless, the brand new system additionally comes with disadvantages equivalent to pan-European invalidation proceedings. No person can predict the standard of judgments issued by the long run courtroom. For homeowners of European patents who’re involved about dropping their IP rights, now could be the time to establish the crown jewels and to make an knowledgeable resolution about opting out.
To learn extra concerning the new provisions to PatG please learn the consumer alert written by Dr. Anette Gärtner and Dr. Alexander R. Klett.