First UPC litigation ranking by JUVE Patent

Many law firms and (potential) litigants eagerly awaited the first UPC litigation ranking recently published by JUVE Patent.

The ranking of December 2024 has revealed a surprising trend: some of the top patent law firms, renowned for their national prosecution and litigation work, are not to be found in the UPC ranking. This includes firms that have played a pro-active role in the preparation of the new system (such as BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT with Prof. Goddar) and firms that are ranked in the top tier for national litigation (such as df-mp).

Acting UPC law firms

Last week, I attended a very informative seminar on UPC proceedings hosted by one of the major German mixed patent law firms. The presenters emphasized that they are not only registered UPC representatives (of which there are many), but also acting UPC representatives in the sense that they are presently engaged in proceedings before the UPC. As of today, only few registered UPC representatives are already engaged in ongoing UPC proceedings.  

Out of curiosity, I checked the names of the law firms acting for plaintiffs in infringement actions before the UPC, as of today (July 10, 2023). I limited my review to the main actions (of which I can access a total of 16 in the register as of today). Here is my count (please let me know if I have inadvertently missed out on your firm, in which case I will update). The list is sorted by number of main actions. For firms having filed an equal number of main actions, the firms are listed alphabetically.

Bardehle: 4 main actions

Arnold Ruess, Bird & Bird, Bonelli Erede, Clifford Chance, eip, Finnegan, Gleiss Große, Grünecker, Gulliksson, Roschier, Sandart, Wildanger: 1 main action each