UPC extends its jurisdiction to the United Kingdom!

The Local Division of Düsseldorf decided that for a defendant domiciled in a member state, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) can take a position on the infringement of the British part of the European patent that is the subject of the dispute. The UPC can therefore rule on the infringement of a patent outside the territory of the UPC, since the United Kingdom left the European Union after Brexit.

However, this extension of jurisdiction seems to have limits since the Local Division does not consider itself able to grant remedies for this territory on the grounds that the validity of the British part has not been examined.

It will be interesting to follow the case law on this issue of remedies outside the territory of the UPC because, in this case, the German part of the European patent was found invalid. Would the Local Division have adopted the same position in the presence of a valid German part?

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