Patent expiry should not necessarily mark the end of a dispute.
In a recent edition of The Patent Lawyer, Patrícia Paias, Francisco Marques Azevedo and Clara Nolasco Lamas examine the legal and practical implications of injunctive relief before the Unified Patent Court (UPC), focusing on damages claims that may arise when provisional measures are later found to have been unjustified and the patent expires before the conclusion of the main proceedings.
The article addresses an increasingly relevant issue within the UPC framework: when a patent expires before a final decision is reached, the focus may shift from the enforcement of patent rights to the consequences of injunctions that may ultimately prove unwarranted.
This raises important questions regarding:
• Compensation for affected parties
• Standards of liability
• The treatment of cross-border damages under the UPC system
The discussion is particularly relevant for the life sciences sector, where interim measures can affect market access, public procurement opportunities and competitive positioning long after patent protection has expired.
As UPC case law continues to evolve, these issues are likely to play an increasingly important role in shaping both litigation strategies and commercial decision-making across Europe.
