http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/06/first-patent-revocation-actions-before.html
On 2 June 2023, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) received its first patent challenge of its existence. Here is a quick recap about the UPC, and a bit of info on these proceedings!
What is the UPC?
The UPC is a new patents court which came into force on 1 June 2023, made up of judges who are nationals of EU Member states that are participating in the UPC. It will comprise of a Court of First Instance with divisions around Europe, and a Court of Appeal in Luxembourg. It has jurisdiction in respect of European patents, European patent applications, European patents with unitary effect, and Supplementary protection certificates for products protected by a European patent or a Unified patent.
The first proceedings before the UPC
The first patent revocation action (ACT_459505/2023) was filed on 2 June, concerning patent EP3666797 “ANTIGEN BINDING PROTEINS TO PROPROTEIN CONVERTASE SUBTILISIN KEXIN TYPE 9 (PCSK9)”. The patents concerned are the same patent family that was successfully challenged before the US Supreme Court in Amgen v Sanofi, which you can read about here from Rose Hughes. Interestingly, the European patent was only very recently granted (on 17 May 2023) and is still in the opposition period.
As of this post on 26 June 2023, these 10 further infringement and revocation proceedings have been filed at the UPC:
- ACT_459767/2023; infringement action regarding patent EP3375337: “SANITATION BATH TUB DEVICE”
- ACT_459760/2023; infringement action regarding patent EP3795501: “A LOAD HANDLING DEVICE FOR RETRIEVING UNITS FROM A STORAGE SYSTEM”
- ACT_459769/2023; infringement action regarding patent EP2628464: “PROSTHETIC VALVE”
- ACT_460565/2023; infringement action regarding patent EP4108782: “COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS FOR ANALYTE DETECTION”
- ACT_463258/2023; infringement action regarding patent EP1612910: “Überwachungsschaltung für die bordeigene Stromversorgung und Leistungsversorgungssteuerung” (On-board power supply and power supply control monitoring circuitry)
- ACT_459791/2023; infringement action regarding patent EP3653540: “STORAGE SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR RETRIEVING UNITS FROM A STORAGE SYSTEM”
- ACT_463658/2023; infringement action regarding patent EP4101791: “A GRID FRAME STRUCTURE”
- ACT_463961/2023; infringement action regarding patents EP2628233 and EP2867997: “POWER TRANSMITTER AND POWER RECEIVER FOR AN INDUCTIVE POWER SYSTEM” and “WIRELESS INDUCTIVE POWER TRANSFER”
- ACT_464985/2023; revocation action regarding patent EP3056563: “METHOD OF PRODUCING RETINAL PIGMENT EPITHELIAL CELL”
- ACT_465342/2023; revocation action regarding patent EP3056564: “METHOD FOR PURIFICATION OF RETINAL PIGMENT EPITHELIAL CELLS”
This Kat is excited for the future of the UPC, and we will keep you updated as these cases progress!
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