< Back to latest news & events

News

CIPA Journal: The UK says goodbye, Germany decides, the UPC says… ?

May 2020

As widely reported, CIPA was informed on 27 February in a personal telephone call to President Richard Mair by IPO CEO Tim Moss that the government will no longer seek to participate in the Unitary Patent (‘UP’) or Unified Patent Court (‘UPC’) system.

Despite the UK government having ratified the UPC Agreement back in April 2018, on World IP Day no less, for many such a decision to pull back is not entirely unexpected given the inevitable jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) over states participating in the new system. In this article, HGF Partner Leythem Wall discusses this in more detail.

Read the full article here.

This article was prepared by HGF Partner Leythem Wall. If you would like further advice on this or any other matter, please contact Leythem.  Alternatively, you can contact your usual HGF representative or visit our Contact page to get in touch with your nearest HGF office.

Latest updates

Event - 10th September 2025

Seminar on Incorporating Trade Secrets into your IP Strategy

HGF is hosting a Seminar on Incorporating Trade Secrets into your IP Strategy which will be followed by networking, apero, and snacks. The Seminar will be held on Wednesday, 10th …

Event details

EU Customs Recordals

Read article

HGF Partners Recognised in IAM Strategy 300 2025

The latest edition of IAM Strategy 300: The World’s Leading IP Strategists has now been published, and HGF is proud to announce that three of our partners have been listed …

Read article
Event - 25th September 2025

HGF Futures Life Sciences – Join our open day in London

An opportunity to discover your path to becoming a Life Science Patent Attorney! Are you a recent or soon-to-be graduate with a degree in Life Sciences? Are you passionate about …

Event details

Celebrating exam success at HGF

We would like to congratulate our colleagues on their recent exam success. Their dedication, perseverance, and commitment to professional development have led to success, and we are pleased to celebrate …

Read article
Event - 5th November 2025

IAM Navigating the UPC conference

HGF are gold sponsors of the IAM Live Navigating the UPC conference. The IAM Live Navigating the UPC will take place at the Marriott Opera Ambassador Hotel, Paris on 5th …

Event details

Post Sale Confusion – dupes and lookalikes beware?

Last month, the UK Supreme Court issued its highly-anticipated decision in Iconix Luxembourg Holdings SARL v Dream Pairs Europe Inc and another [2025] UKSC 25. Helpful background to the dispute …

Read article

A leading case - beware sequence errors in patent claims

Samsung Bioepis UK Ltd v Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc [2025] EWHC 1240 (Pat) – Mr Justice Meade – 20 May 2025 The UK Patents Court has held that Samsung Bioepis’ and Amgen’s …

Read article