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JUVE Patent People & Business The UPC two years in: close to 900 cases and plenty of settlements
Unified Patent Court

The UPC two years in: close to 900 cases and plenty of settlements

As the Unified Patent Court marks its second anniversary, its caseload stands at 883 new cases by the end of May. Recent weeks have seen numerous settlements in high-profile UPC battles, while some major cases launched on day one continue to rage.

5 June 2025 by Mathieu Klos

JUVE Patent takes stock two years into the UPC. ©Dickov/ADOBE Stock

Edwards Lifesciences vs Meril Life Sciences remains one of Europe’s most intense patent battles, as well as a major ongoing UPC case since the court’s launch two years ago. No sooner had the UPC opened its doors on 1 June 2023, than Edwards escalated the heart valve dispute, filing a lawsuit with the Nordic-Baltic regional division in Stockholm (case ID: ACT_459769/2023).

The court heard the case in January 2025 and both parties await the ruling. In mid-July, the same division will hear a second lawsuit filed later by Edwards against its competitor. The dispute continues in full force.

1,000 mark firmly in sight

At the end of 2023, the UPC had logged a total of 160 cases, 67 of which were infringement suits. The remainder comprised counterclaims for revocation and PI proceedings. Since then, the number of new cases has risen steadily.

According to the latest case statistics, the UPC had recorded 883 cases by the end of May 2025. This represents 47 more cases than at the end of April and 183 more than in January. In the first month of 2025, the court announced 700 cases since its inception, 251 of which were infringement claims.

English prevails

Most cases are now conducted in English (55%), with only 38% of cases filed in German. At the end of 2023, cases in German still accounted for 49%, significantly ahead of proceedings in English. However, in recent months there has been a persistent trend towards English.

One aspect has remained unchanged since the court’s early days: Munich still receives the most new lawsuits. The figure currently stands at 111 infringement cases, ahead of the other three German UPC local divisions in Düsseldorf (65), Mannheim (45) and Hamburg (23).

The Hague on the rise

The local division The Hague got off to a slow start in 2023. Many Dutch patent experts worried that UPC business might bypass them and flow to Germany. But the Hague is now catching up and, with 21 infringement cases, it is ahead of the local division in Paris (20) and just behind Hamburg.

The smaller local divisions are now also receiving more cases. Copenhagen, for example, now has three infringement claims. Seven lawsuits have been filed with the Nordic-Baltic regional division since 2023.

As expected, the central division in Paris continues to lead the way in revocation actions with 47 proceedings, well ahead of Munich (10) and Milan (8).

The Court of Appeal is also seeing an uptick. In 203 cases, one of the parties to the proceedings lodged an appeal against a first-instance decision at the appeals court in Luxembourg. In addition, there are 76 cases on issues such as requests for discretionary review, applications for suspensive effect, applications for an order for expedition of an appeal or applications for rehearing under RoP245.

Klaus Grabinski

Klaus Grabinski

Due to the high caseload, the UPC plans to increase the number of Court of Appeal judges from 5.1 full-time equivalents to 12 in 2025. Both figures include the President of the UPC, Klaus Grabinski.

Latest wave of settlements

Another high-profile ongoing dispute from the UPC’s early days is that between Amgen and Sanofi over cholesterol-lowering drugs Praluent and Repatha. However, many other major cases have since been settled, such as Ocado vs Autostore in 2023.

There were some surprising settlements at the turn of this year. Panasonic, Oppo and Xiaomi ended their SEP battle at the end of 2024, for example. Huawei and Netgear also agreed to end their global disputes, as did Lenovo and Ericsson, and Dexcom and Abbott. Companies also seemed particularly keen to settle their patent disputes in April and May.

Below is a list of the most important UPC settlements since December 2024:

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Author

Mathieu Klos

Editor JUVE Patent
mathieu.klos@juve.de