Previously, national courts were solely responsible for infringement and/or invalidity actions relating to European patents in their respective territories, leading to parallel court procedures in case infringement takes place on a pan-European level.
Since June 1st, 2023 the Unified Patent Court (UPC), a court common to the participating EU countries, is exclusively competent for disputes concerning the infringement or revocation of Unitary Patents and classic European patents validated in the participating countries. The UPC is a decentralized system comprising local, regional, and central divisions across Europe (e.g. Belgium has a local division in Brussels).
The UPC aims to provide a simpler and more efficient judicial system with one court having jurisdiction across all participating EU countries for all European patents and Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPC) obtained based on European patents.
During a transitional period of seven years, which may be prolonged by up to a further seven years, an infringement or revocation action based on a classic European patent may be brought before national courts or before the UPC. Patent proprietors wishing to avoid the risk of central revocation of their classic EP patents by the UPC can opt-out any of their granted EP patents and supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) from the UPC’s exclusive competence during the transitional period.