European Union Patent - Unified Patent Court

Unified Patent Court

A common patent court called "Unified Patent Court" (UPC) is planned to be constituted, serving as the single court having exclusive jurisdiction in infringement and revocation proceedings involving European patents in the 25 participating states (both if individual countries are designated and for the EU patent). The court would have two divisions: a court of first instance and a court of appeal. The court would have its seat, registry and central division in Paris, with branches in all member states that wish to set up a division. The central division would have thematic branches in London (focusing on chemistry cases, including pharmaceuticals, i.e. International Patent Classification (IPC) classification C, and human necessities, i.e. IPC classification A) and Munich (mechanical engineering cases, i.e. IPC classification F) each expected to take about 30% of the case load. The proposal does not include the possibility for the court to refer a legal question to the European Court of Justice, due to opposition from the United Kingdom.

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