Three Years Of The UPC – A Court Coming Of Age

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The Unified Patent Court (UPC) has reached a significant milestone in its development, with the past six months bringing crucial harmonisation through Court of Appeal decisions, particularly regarding...

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The UPC continues to evolve rapidly. Since our last briefing in January 2026 (Two and half years of the UPC – trends and turning points) we have seen a significant increase in UPC Court of Appeal decisions with several important areas being harmonised, in particular on its international or “long-arm” jurisdiction (including the first reference from the UPC to the CJEU).

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In this latest briefing, we start our coverage by:

discussing recent developments on the UPC's international jurisdiction;
reviewing the Court of Appeal's role in harmonising the UPC’s approach;
providing insights from our German and Italian teams on how the courts are developing on the ground;
considering what the newly launched UPC Patent Mediation and Arbitration Centre has to offer; and
offering some thoughts on how the end of the transition period might play out.

We then examine specific developments over the last six months, consider various topics in detail including aspects of validity, infringement, the doctrine of equivalence, protective measures (including preliminary injunctions) and key procedural updates.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

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Three Years Of The UPC – A Court Coming Of Age

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Intellectual Property

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