Discover the nominees for the JUVE Patent Award UPC Firm of the Year 2025

Since the launch of the Unified Patent Court 18 months ago, a market for UPC litigation has already developed among European patent firms. JUVE Patent has been watching this development with a keen eye and will publish the first ever ranking for UPC litigation on 11 December.

In parallel to the comprehensive ranking research, JUVE Patent journalists have scanned the market for particularly dynamic and strategically successful developments at individual law firms — as regards both the UPC launch and their successes in specific UPC cases.

The JUVE Patent journalists have now selected the nominees for the JUVE Patent Award UPC Firm of the Year 2025:

• Kather Augenstein
• Powell Gilbert
• Thum & Partner
• Torggler & Hofmann
• Vossius & Brinkhof UPC Litigators

The focus was on law firms from Europe with UPC representatives. Over the coming days, the editorial team will publish profiles of the nominees highlighting their development in recent years.

Nominees reflect breadth

Even though the UPC’s German divisions currently have the most cases, with German patent firms particularly strongly represented, the five nominees reflect the breadth with which many European law firms operate at the new court.

The award is not based on the sheer number of cases the law firms have, but on how dynamically they have prepared for the new business and what particular successes they have achieved since the UPC was launched.

Brand new award

JUVE Patent will announce the historic winner next Wednesday along with the publication of the first ever ranking for UPC litigation. The lucky winner will be the first to receive a trophy in what will be an annual prize-giving.

For many years now, the JUVE editorial team has presented three awards to IP teams in Germany. The categories are IP In-house Team of the Year, IP Law Firm of the Year and Patent Law Firm of the Year. This year, these awards went to ThyssenKrupp, Bird & Bird and Cohausz & Florack, respectively.

In contrast to the JUVE Patent Award, the JUVE Awards recognise dynamic developments and achievements in the German IP market. The JUVE Patent Award UPC Firm of the Year is now the fourth IP-related award, but it is the first to honour the European market.

First UPC litigation ranking

JUVE Patent has been observing and analysing the UPC preparations of European law firms for many years. Since 1 June 2023, the editorial team has also closely observed their work on UPC cases.

Our intensive reporting on these cases, attendance of oral hearings and our research into the important European patent markets of Austria, Germany, France, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia form the basis for this ranking and the selection of nominees.

As in all JUVE Patent’s ranking research, the editorial team draws on information and recommendations from many hundreds of interviews and written surveys of clients and law firms.