The German Constitutional Court docket issued a landmark choice 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 Court docket (UPC). After overcoming many hurdles, any wise commentator will probably be cautious in making statements about the way forward for the UPC. That stated, 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 essentially the most related jurisdictions. The brand new system and the supply of pan-European injunctions implies that claimants will have the ability to transfer from 5 parallel instances to at least one. Nonetheless, the brand new system additionally comes with disadvantages similar to pan-European invalidation proceedings. No one can predict the standard of judgments issued by the longer term courtroom. For homeowners of European patents who’re involved about shedding their IP rights, now could be the time to establish the crown jewels and to make an knowledgeable choice about opting out.

To learn extra concerning the new provisions to PatG please learn the shopper alert written by Dr. Anette Gärtner and Dr. Alexander R. Klett.