The Unified Patent Court (UPC) has emerged as a pivotal venue for pharmaceutical and biotech patent disputes across Europe, particularly from 2024 to early 2025. The article emphasizes the need for practitioners to view European legal mechanisms as interconnected rather than isolated. Innovators and generic/biosimilar manufacturers are developing multi-faceted strategies by leveraging UPC alongside European Patent Office (EPO) oppositions and national litigations. A critical lesson highlighted is that pending EPO oppositions can greatly affect UPC proceedings, including requests for preliminary injunctions, thereby influencing the landscape of patent enforcement and validity assessments.
Treat Europe not as one court versus another, but as a collection of tools...that can be deployed in concert. As more decisions come in, practitioners will gain further clarity.
One clear lesson is that a pending strong EPO opposition can significantly influence UPC proceedings, especially requests for preliminary injunctions.
Defending your patent in EPO opposition is not just about the long-term validity in EPO member states. It has immediate ramifications for injunctive relief across the UPC countries.
Innovators and generic or biosimilar companies are now coordinating multi-front strategies engaging the UPC for pan-European relief while leveraging EPO opposition and selecting national litigations.
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