A guide to the UPC and the UP - Flipbook - Page 2
Preface
Welcome to Bird & Bird’s Guide to the UPC and the UP. This Guide is written with a view to guiding the
patent practitioner through both the process for obtaining a Unitary patent and the procedure for
litigating European and Unitary patents before the Unified Patent Court. Drawing on the knowledge
and experience that Bird & Bird’s patent litigators and patent attorneys have acquired over many years
of litigation practice in their own national jurisdictions, we have done our best to explain how we think
this new system will work. However, since this book has been written before the Court has opened its
doors, it necessarily represents our personal views as to how the Court is likely to handle the numerous
contentious issues that will need to be decided by it. We therefore intend to update this book on a
regular basis as the law and practice of the Court develops.
Rather like the story of the Court itself, this Guide has been something of a start-stop-start project. It
was kicked off in London in 2014 following which a group of us civil and common law practitioners
enthusiastically started working on the first draft. The Brexit referendum in 2016 was the first set-back,
followed by two German Constitutional complaints made in 2017 and 2020. The United Kingdom,
having initially indicated that it would remain a party, eventually withdrew from the Unified Patent
Court Agreement. The Agreement then survived both of the Constitutional complaints and Germany
has now ratified it to bring the Court (along with the Unitary patent), at long last, into being.
As a project, the writing of this Guide has been very much a collective effort over the years on the part
of numerous current and ex-Birds. Particularly mention should go to Domien Op de Beeck (Belgium),
Jirí Malý (Czechia), Mikko Nurmisto (Finland), Yves Bizollon, Laurent Labatte and Anne-Charlotte Le
Bihan (France), Dr. Claus Becker, Dr. Annika Lückermann, Dr. Matthias Meyer and Dr. Daniel Misch
(Germany), Giovanni Galimberti and Evelina Marchesoni (Italy), Armand Killan and Marc van
Wijngaarden (Netherlands), Piotr Dynowski (Poland), Toby Bond, Trevor Cook, Christopher de Mauny,
Henry Elliott, Zoe Fuller, Neil Jenkins, Jennifer Jones, Morag Macdonald, Tom Snaith, William Warne and
Robert Williams (United Kingdom). Especial thanks should go to Wouter Pors (Netherlands) for his
guidance and for sharing his insights and expertise, to Dr. Michael Alt (Germany) for contributing
Chapter 2 and to Marianne Abrahams in our marketing department for turning this project into a
reality. Thanks also to ex-colleagues Fleur de Chenevix-Trench, Jonathan Edwards and Audrey Horton
and most particularly to Bruno Vandermeulen: it would not have been possible without their support
and enthusiasm.
Finally, I should mention that every attempt has been made to ensure that this Guide is up to date
as of 31 May 2023, but there will inevitably be errors and omissions for which I take responsibility.
Given the nature of the Unitary Patent Package project and the purpose of this Guide, I would
welcome it if readers would bring any comments or indeed constructive criticism to my attention
at katharine.stephens@twobirds.com.
Katharine Stephens
May 2023
© Bird & Bird LLP | May 2023
A Guide to the UPC and the UP
