Forty years after the first discussions began with a view to creating a single European patent, 25 EU Member States (with the exception of Italy, Spain and Croatia) approved three instruments creating a European Patent with unitary effect. One of the instruments is the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, signed on 19 February 2013. The Agreement provides for a 'Unified Patent Court' (UPC) as a single court consisting of a Court of First instance and a Court of Appeal. The court will have exclusive jurisdiction both in infringement and revocation proceedings. So it will provide a less complex and cheaper alternative to the current situation where patent cases have to be tried in each EU Member State separately.Quite probably, the first cases will be tried 2017.

This book guides through the procedures before the UPC both with respect to substantial aspects of the unitary patent, in particular the scope of protection, as well as the procedural enforceability of the Unitary Patent. In the absence of relevant case law, the authors relate to the enforcement practices in the Member States.

Dr Johannes Pitz, Dr Thure Schubert and Dr Georg Andreas Rauh are experienced practitioners working as litigators for Vossius & Partner.