WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM 37 up under the UPC Agreement, with jurisdiction over UPs and classical European patents that have been validated in the member states participating in the agreement (i.e. those which have not elected to ‘opt out’ of it). This centralised, specialist court provides a new forum for enforcing and challenging patents in Europe. The court has significant powers and can grant pan-European injunctions in enforcement actions or revoke patents across all participating member states. How has the introduction of the unitary patent system impacted patent strategies for SMEs, particularly in the life sciences sector? Early indications are that SMEs are embracing the Unitary Patent System and the benefits it offers in terms of cost, simplicity, and the centralised Unitary Patent Court (UPC), with almost a third of applications for Unitary Patents (UPs) originating from SMEs in 2024. Although there were concerns that life sciences and, particularly, pharmaceutical companies would avoid UPs and the UPC because of the risk of central revocation of their most valuable patents, the 2024 statistics seem to show otherwise. Requests for UPs in the biotech and pharmaceutical fields (33.9% and 32.9%, respectively) were among the highest in any technology area. Indeed, the proprietor with the highest number of UPs is the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson. Similarly, the UPC has been very active, with more than 400 infringement and revocation actions filed since June 2023. While the majority involve large enterprises, others originate from SMEs that could not afford pan-European legislation but find the UPC a more costeffective forum to enforce their rights. It is still rather early to draw too many conclusions from the data, but the initial signs suggest that a significant number of SMEs are attracted by the benefits the Unitary Patent System offers in terms of cost, broad territorial coverage, and panEuropean enforcement. The Unitary Patent System... provides a simpler, cheaper process for the validation and renewal of European patents, and... gives legal certainty in patent disputes.
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