Düsseldorf, May 10, 2024 – Just one year after its launch, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) is proving extremely efficient. Cohausz & Florack (C&F) is particularly impressed by the comparatively short duration of proceedings thanks to the new patent system. The first rulings in revocation actions, for example, can already be expected soon. C&F is also involved in these proceedings. In the summer, for instance, the C&F team will attend an oral hearing before the UPC central division in Paris. “This hearing will take place around ten months after the revocation action was filed – a remarkably short amount of time,” says Jan Ackermann, patent attorney and partner at C&F. For a comparison, the average duration of revocation actions at the Federal Patent Court (Bundespatentgericht), according to the court’s 2022 Annual Report, is 25.4 months. “We hope that the quality of the rulings at the UPC will be at least as good as the speed with which they are made,” Ackermann continues.
C&F believes that the new patent system has already demonstrated its range of expertise in a short space of time: “So far, the UPC has primarily considered the validity of patents in preliminary injunction proceedings. We are now looking forward to the first rulings in revocation actions,” says Dr. Natalie Kirchhofer, patent attorney and partner at C&F.
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