UPC shares breakdown of cases
Munich in pole position for infringement actions, followed by two other German divisions | One language dominates nearly half of the proceedings, but another features widely.
Since its launch in June 2023, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) has revealed that it has received a total of 217 cases.
The court published an update yesterday, February 1, outlining how this figure is divided into categories of cases, their respective handling divisions, and the predominant languages used in proceedings.
Local and regional divisions
Of the recorded cases, 83 are infringement actions, with 29 infringement actions filed in the Munich local division, 17 in Düsseldorf, 11 in Mannheim, nine in the Paris local division, and five in the Nordic Baltic regional division.
Elsewhere, the local divisions of Hamburg, Milan and the Hague received three infringement actions each, whereas Brussels, Helsinki and Vienna have received one infringement action each.
According to the UPC, 86 counterclaims for revocation have been filed with the court’s local and regional divisions.
However, this particular figure, it cautioned, may give an inflated impression—unless “it is noted that each defendant in an infringement case needs to file an individual claim for revocation”.
Languages of court
The UPC further outlined how the 86 counterclaims for revocation stemmed from 26 individual infringement actions.
In total, the UPC Court of First Instance has received 22 applications for provisional measures, preserving evidence and orders for inspection.
Meanwhile, the Paris central division received 21 revocation actions while four revocation actions have been filed with Munich’s central division.
To date, the Court of Appeal has received 11 appeals under RoP220.1 (litera a/b or c) and 13 appeals under RoP220.2. The appeals court has also received one request for discretionary review, two applications for suspensive effect and three applications for an order for expedition of an appeal.
While German has emerged as the predominant language of the court—used in 47% of the proceedings—the use of English is steadily increasing, currently featuring in 43% of UPC proceedings.
Commenting on LinkedIn, Wouter Pors, partner at Bird & Bird, wrote: “In view of the fact that, looking at the case list, these are matters with substantial value between claimants and defendants from all over the world including major operators in the patent world, this really is a considerable number."
It also means, he added, that the UPC will be able to develop a considerable body of case law by the end of this year.
"This will include Court of Appeal judgments on procedural issues, but in PI actions also on the substance. This will provide the necessary predictability and reliability. No reason to apply a wait-and-see approach anymore!"
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