One of the most anticipated sessions of the conference, Panel 2 will focus on Preliminary Injunctions (PI) at the Unified Patent Court (UPC), a topic that continues to attract intense attention from rights holders, defendants, in-house counsels and representatives. Interim relief is a potentially decisive mechanism, capable of shaping disputes long before a case reaches a final decision. This panel will explore whether the “first shot” at the UPC is indeed proving to be a winner and what this means for future litigation strategy.
The panel will discuss the availability and scope of preliminary injunctions under the UPC framework, examining how the court approaches requests for interim relief, including the procedural and evidentiary thresholds applicants must meet. Particular attention will be paid to the UPC’s power to grant injunctions with effect across multiple participating member states. Compared to national courts, this possibility of broad, centralized relief raises the stakes significantly, both for patentees seeking rapid enforcement and for defendants facing immediate and wide-ranging commercial consequences.
The standards of urgency and proportionality, two requirements that are central to the UPC Agreement (UPCA) but are still evolving in practice, will be discussed by the speakers. How urgency may be assessed, including how delays in bringing an application can affect the prospects of success will be addressed. Proportionality will be a focal point, with the panel considering how the UPC is likely to balance the patentee’s right to effective enforcement against the potential economic impact of an injunction on the defendant and third parties. This balancing exercise is expected to play an increasingly important role in PI proceedings.
Territorial scope of relief and its strategic implications will also be brought up by this panel. Because the UPC can issue injunctions covering a large part of the European market, forum shopping within the UPC system is expected to become a critical consideration. The speakers will examine how claimants and defendants may seek to influence where proceedings are brought, and how challenges to jurisdiction, validity, or scope may be used strategically to limit or expand the effect of interim measures.
Finally, the discussion will turn to sector-specific strategies in pharmaceuticals and IT/telecoms, two industries where preliminary injunctions can be particularly impactful. In the pharmaceutical section, an interim relief may impact, prevent or delay the launch of generics or biosimilars, where timing is often decisive for market exclusivity. In IT and telecom, preliminary injunctions may interact with standard-essential patents and FRAND obligations, and the risk of broad injunctions can end up influencing licensing negotiations and litigation tactics.
Overall, Panel 2 will provide a forward-looking and practical discussion of preliminary injunctions at the UPC, offering valuable insights into how this powerful procedural tool is likely to be applied and how parties can best prepare to use or defend against it in high-stakes patent disputes.
By Paula Terzini Leite
