The Unified Patent Court will start to accept cases on 1 June 2023 and the sunrise period for opt-out of European patents from the new court's jurisdiction will start on 1 March. Germany has today (17 February 2023) deposited its instrument of ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA), the final ratification required to trigger the run-up period to the start of the UPC. The arrival of the UPC will mark a fundamental change in patent litigation in Europe, providing a one-stop-shop for resolution of patent disputes - with the possibility of pan-European injunction and damages awards but also of the revocation (loss) of patents across participating states in one action too Read more

Uses of machine learning and AI are expanding rapidly, and IP rights play a critical role in both regulating the use of AI and protecting the rights of inventors and creators. In this series, we will explore the key challenges governments worldwide are currently grappling with in order to provide the right level of protection … Read more

In this update, our competition law experts consider a number of recent competition law developments in the pharma sector in the EU, France, Germany, Spain, the UK and China. This is a selective list of developments that may have practical implications on the way pharma companies carry on their business. Please feel free to get … Read more

The IP Division of the Court of Rome has issued a preliminary injunction to prohibit the minting and marketing of Non-Fungible-Tokens ("NFT") that, unauthorised, reproduced well-known trade marks owned by the Juventus football club. While various cases related to NFTs and intellectual property rights are pending before the US courts, this is the first time that a court in Europe has found an NFT to be infringing IP rights, setting a useful precedent for brand owners seeking to protect their trade marks in the new era of the metaverse. Read more

The new European Unified Patent Court (UPC) has been a long time coming – and now just a little bit longer with the two month delay recently announced. The new start date is 1 June 2023 with the sunrise period in which to pre-register opt-outs of European patents from the UPC's jurisdiction now starting on 1 March 2023. Despite the short delay, businesses around the world must continue to consider their strategies for the UPC and, in particular, opt-out, ahead of the revised start date. Herbert Smith Freehills' Joint Global Head of Intellectual Property, Laura Orlando, recently spoke to Bloomberg Law to share her insights on what US lawyers should be considering in advance of its launch. Read more

The UPC website has announced today that the start date for the sunrise period will be delayed until 1 March 2023 to allow users to prepare themselves for the strong authentication required to access the UPC's case management system (CMS) and to sign documents.  Previously the sunrise period was due to start on 1 January 2023.  This delay means that that start date for the UPC will also be pushed back by two months, to 1 June 2023 (rather than 1 April). The UPC site says that no further delay is anticipated. This June start date would require Germany to deposit its instrument of ratification of the UPC Agreement in February. Read more