The Brussels I Recast Regulation and the Unified Patent Court Agreement: Towards an Enhanced Patent Litigation System?

This paper deals with the agreement establishing a Unified Patent Court (UPC), signed by 25 EU Member States on 19 February 2013 and its impact on the rules on jurisdiction in civil and commercial matters as contained in Regulation (EU) No. 1215/2012 (s.c. “Brussels I Recast Regulation”), which replaces the pre-existing Brussels I Regulation. The study analyzes the new rules introduced in the Brussels I Recast Regulation through Regulation (EU) No 542/2014, making provision for the application of the rules on jurisdiction as contained in the Regulation to the UPC as well as to the Benelux Court of Justice, as judicial bodies common to several Member States. As concerns the UPC, the new rules introduced by Regulation No 542/2014 appear welcome, insofar as they provide for the enlargement of the territorial scope of the competence of the UPC itself, a competence that the agreement itself considers as exclusive. Nonetheless, the new rules fall short of addressing effectively the problems of coordination of the exclusive jurisdiction provided for under Article 24.4 of the Brussels I Recast Regulation in respect of actions concerning registration or validity of intellectual property rights, including European patents, with other heads of jurisdiction such as that provided for under Art. 7.2 of the same Regulation in respect of actions in matters of tort or delict, such as those concerning infringement of the same rights.