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12 August 2015Big Pharma

London branch of UPC revealed

The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has revealed the location for the country’s central and local divisions of the forthcoming Unified Patent Court (UPC).

In what the IPO hailed as a “major step” towards the UPC’s introduction, it said it signed a lease for space in Aldgate Tower in London yesterday, August 11.

The three central divisions of the UPC will be based in Paris, Munich and London. The London-based division will hear disputes related to chemical and pharmaceutical matters.

In a statement, the UK’s IP minister Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe said that signing the lease represented a milestone in the UK’s preparations for the introduction of the UPC.

“Aldgate Tower, with its superb central location, will provide an ideal home for a modern court to support the UK’s and Europe’s leading edge innovative companies,” she said.

The UPC will hear disputes over unitary patents. In order for the court to be implemented the agreement must be approved by a minimum of 13 countries.

France, which has already approved the agreement, Germany and the UK must be among the 13. So far eight countries have ratified the agreement with Portugal becoming the most recent.

Alan Johnson, partner at law firm Bristows, said the choice of Aldgate Tower sends a signal that the UK is “fully committed” to making London the hub for European patent litigation in the UPC era.

“The government has taken 1,800 square metres of prime office space. It is a blank canvass for the designers and large enough to house four large courts of 100 square metres, with two of those being capable of being opened up together to form a super-court capable of accommodating the largest multi-party cases.”

He added: “It has been a great victory for the supporters of the UPC in the UK that a brand new ultra-modern facility has been secured and doubters who thought that the UK was not committed to the project have been proved wrong.”

UK-based organisation the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) welcomed the news.

Andrea Brewster, CIPA’s president, said: “We are confident that the court will be a success and will help to make the UK’s capital the centre for all patent-related legal activity in chemical and pharmaceutical innovation.

“The government is working assiduously to bring the UPC into existence. The presence of part of the central division in London allows the UK to maintain its strong position as a centre of excellence for patent litigation.”

She added: “The UK can use the court’s presence to build on London’s existing reputation and turn the capital into a global hub for intellectual property law.”


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15 November 2022   Firms aim to form a UPC litigation alliance | New court has significant implications for life sciences | UPC faces calls for delay over concerns regarding its case management system.