Accord relatif à une Juridiction Unifiée du Brevet (AJUB)

The purpose of the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court (AUPC) is to establish the Unified Patent Court (UPC), a Court common to all EU Member States party to the AUPC, for the settlement of disputes relating to unitary patents and European patents.

Signed on 19 February 2013 by all EU Member States except Croatia, Spain and Poland, the AUPC entered into force on 1 June 2023 in the 17 Member States that have ratified it (AUPC membership remains open to any other EU Member State).

The AUPC provides that the UPC comprises a Court of First Instance (CFI) with a central division in Paris and various local and regional divisions, as well as a Court of Appeal and a Registry based in Luxembourg.

The AUPC then makes EU laws, the European Patent Convention and national law the legal sources to be used by the UPC judges.

Although the AUPC stipulates that the UPC has exclusive jurisdiction in principle for unitary patents and European patents, it does make this jurisdiction subject to exceptions in the case of European patents, and this for a transitional period of seven years. During this period, an infringement action or an invalidity action can be brought before national courts. In addition, the opt-out allows the proprietor/applicant of a European patent, which would be granted or applied for before the end of the transitional period, to notify the UPC registry of its wish to derogate from the UPC’s jurisdiction for the patent in question.