The UPC confirms it has 52 cases, almost three months after launch
The Unified Patent Court currently has 52 cases. This was announced by the court yesterday, following a request by JUVE Patent. The total includes 35 infringement proceedings, seven revocation actions and ten other cases, for example preliminary measures, preserving evidence or orders for inspection.
25 August 2023 by Mathieu Klos
Since launching on 1 June 2023, the UPC has had problems showing proceedings on its registry. However, now users and observers can view all 35 infringement proceedings on its case management system. The proceedings include a new action by imaging product distributor Agfa against Gucci at the Hamburg local division, and all twelve actions by Panasonic against Oppo and Xiaomi. However, some revocation actions and other cases are still not visible.
According to the UPC, the ten other cases, including preliminary measures, preserving evidence or orders for inspection, are split between the local divisions in Milan, Munich, Düsseldorf, Vienna and Helsinki. The revocation actions are split between the central divisions in Munich with four, and Paris with three.
UPC Local Division Munich ©Unified Patent Court
Munich in the lead
In terms of infringement proceedings, the UPC local division in Munich leads with 14 cases. Mannheim is second with six cases, Düsseldorf has four, while Hamburg and Milan each have three cases.
The remaining cases are distributed among the Nordic-Baltic regional division, which has two, and the local divisions in Helsinki, Paris and The Hague. The latter three boast one case each.
According to the UPC website, the 35 lawsuits also include two lawsuits filed by Ocado against AutoStore. The two companies settled their global dispute in early August. However, according to JUVE Patent information, an application from AutoStore regarding the suit’s withdrawal is pending.
More UPC disputes coming
Another new lawsuit is the dispute between Fives ECL and REEL GmbH regarding service modules for aluminium production. In this case, Fives, together with Preu Bohlig & Partner, has already obtained an infringement judgment against the competitor before the Düsseldorf Regional Court.
According to JUVE Patent information, Preu Bohlig and Plasseraud IP have now filed an application for the determination of damages at the local division Hamburg. However, the UPC registry is not yet displaying this case.
