Clarivate reveals first year of Unitary Patent Court litigation activity

Published July 10, 2024

Consistency in infringement cases with an average of 10 filings per month

London, UK – July 10, 2024 – Clarivate Plc (NYSE: CLVT), a leading global provider of transformative intelligence, today launched the report One year later in the UPC: First insights from Darts-ip™, which analyzes litigation data from the Unitary Patent Court’s (UPC) inaugural year. The analysis sheds light on the future direction of the UPC and its continued role alongside the European national courts and other major global patent jurisdictions.

According to Darts-ip data, infringement cases were consistent for the UPC’s first year, averaging 10 filings per month. The number of decisions published by the UPC increased slightly each month with the number of decisions given in the second six months increasing 155% compared to the first six months of the Court. German local divisions accounted for nearly 80% of infringement cases, with Munich leading at 37.7% of all infringement cases filed before the UPC. Six of the top ten plaintiffs were U.S.-based and the top ten most active representative firms dealt with two-thirds (71.3%) of the total number of cases filed before the UPC.

Gordon Samson, President, Intellectual Property, Clarivate, said: “The launch of the UPC represents a significant development in the global patent landscape. The importance of using data to draw valuable conclusions about the global patent and litigation landscape is crucial as the UPC’s jurisdiction continues to develop. Data should be at the heart of every business decision, to validate analyses and inform strategy or to predict important industry, technological, and legal trends.”

In terms of industries, electrical engineering was the most impacted technical field, constituting 39.8% of all infringement cases, followed by instruments at 22.6%, mechanical engineering at 16%, and chemistry at 13%. The pharmaceutical sector represented only 3.4% of all UPC infringement cases. The information and communication technologies (ICT) industry accounted for 38.5% of all patents asserted before the UPC.

A different pattern was observed for revocation cases. Electrical engineering was not the most impacted technical field, as it accounted for only 28% of all industries. In contrast to infringement proceedings, Instruments took the lead with 36%. Additionally, mechanical engineering and chemistry only accounted for 8% each.

Read the One year later in the UPC: First insights from Darts-ip report here.

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