Pharma backs the new Unified Patent Court for majority of future filings

There is growing support for Europe’s hotly debated Unified Patent Court, with almost three-quarters of those responsible for overseeing preparations for the new system in pharma and life sciences expecting it to be positive for their company, according to new research from Allen & Overy today.

Only 8% of those surveyed in the pharma and life sciences industry said that they expect the UPC to have negative consequences for them, compared to 15% across all industries. Some 60% of life science and pharma companies said they expect the unitary patent to make up the majority of their future filings, compared to 55% across all industries. One unitary patent is being introduced across Europe, which will reduce translation costs, along with one patent court. The Unified Patent Court will be a new patent court with specialist judges, its own rules and procedures to blend the best of the existing national rules.

Nicola Dagg, Global Head of IP Litigation at Allen & Overy, said: “The survey results show that Europe’s UPC is likely to be a forum of choice to rival the US for major patent disputes. We at Allen & Overy appreciate that pharma companies may be more conservative on opting –in their key patents for blockbuster products, at least initially. They won’t want to put these very high value patents at risk whilst uncertainties remain in the new system. However, they may find that their competitors drag them into the UPC and they need to prepare for that scenario. Life sciences companies, like our other interviewees, generally expect that the new system will be positive for them and appreciate that they need to engage strategically with the changes now.”