Each month, our UPC experts delve into the Unified Patent Court, to unpack key insights from what’s been happening at the UPC, and share their findings.
In this special edition of UPC Unpacked, we break down the hot topics from our recent ‘Unpacking the UPC: Expert insights and lessons learnt’ webinar, that took place on 11 September.
Hosted by Sanjeet Plaha, IP litigation specialist Jamie Rowlands and UPC representatives Greg Ward and Matthew Howell discussed recurring themes they’ve identified from delving into decisions so far and examining the approaches taken by the UPC, as well as lessons learnt from these cases and their own experiences.
Watch them talk through some key points below and if you’d like to view the webinar in full, you can request the full recording here.
What are the pitfalls and when might it work in your favour?
In this section of the webinar, Jamie Rowlands covered efficiency in the UPC, looking at four main areas:
In the preview below, Jamie explores some of the case statistics at the First Instance Court since 1 June 2023.
What does the UPC’s approach mean for you?
Next, Greg Ward looked at added subject matter and the EPO ‘Gold Standard’ approach, and gave a brief review of four recent decisions and orders that provide potentially useful insights into how the UPC has been handling added subject matter.
Here is Greg explaining what added subject matter is and how it is assessed.
How is the UPC assessing inventive step?
Finally, Matthew Howell considered how the UPC approaches the assessment of inventive step. Matthew delved into a number of first decisions from the UPC, to see how different divisions have approached inventive step and what the common themes are. The decisions include:
Here is Matthew talking through some of the recurring themes from these decisions.
Unpacking the UPC: Expert insights and lessons learnt
Here’s what our team of UPC experts discussed and the insights they shared on the Unified Patent Court, interspersed with practical tips they’ve gleaned through their own first hand experience of the Court. They gave pointers on:
This is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Should you require advice on this or any other Unified Patent Court related topic then please contact upc@hlk-ip.com or your usual HLK advisor.
In our upcoming webinar, our Opposition and Appeal team will be focussing on developments at the EPO’s Boards of Appeal, strategies for maximising success at appeals and take a look at some recent opposition statistics.
Register here