François Pochart

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First Unified Patent Court Ruling on Second Medical Use Claims

On 13 May 2025, the Düsseldorf Local Division of the Unified Patent Court issued a landmark decision on the merits relating to a second medical use claim (Sanofi Biotechnology SAS and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Amgen Inc. et al., 13 May 2025, UPC_CFI_505/2024). The decision follows an infringement action brought by Regeneron and Sanofi, respectively the proprietor and exclusive licensee of European Patent No 3 536 712 ("EP’712"), against various entities of the Amgen group, which subsequently filed a counterclaim for revocation. The claimants argued that the defendants’ product, evolocumab, marketed as Repatha® infringed EP’712.

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Infringement by equivalence before the preliminary injunction judge: where has the obvioussness gone?

Is it possible to obtain a preliminary injunction (PI) based only on infringement by equivalence? While a 2017 PI order clearly answered no to this que

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Recasting the existing EU SPC regulations and introducing a unitary SPC: recent progress and future steps

La Commission européenne a proposé une réforme des Certificats Complémentaires de Protection (CCP) pour les médicaments, avec un CCP unitaire et une refonte du règlement existant. Le Parlement européen a adopté ces textes le 28 février dernier. L'EUIPO examinera les demandes de CCP, avec des mécanismes de contrôle et de recours. Les textes intègrent la jurisprudence de la CJUE pour assurer la cohérence. Les prochaines étapes incluent des discussions avec le Conseil de l'Union européenne dans le cadre des trilogues. Les élections européennes ne devraient pas interrompre le processus législatif.

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Number of PCT filings: 1st worldwide decline in 14 years, but France still on the rise

In anticipation of the forthcoming release of the WIPO 2024 Annual Report, Carsten Fink, Chief Economist at WIPO and Head of the Statistics and Data Analys

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UPC already in infringement of article 6 ECHR ?

Is the UPC appeal court so in its youth that it has not yet learned to count up to 5 (at least without the help of its technically qualified judges) ?

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Saving Strict Liability

Pour rappel, Gilead avait demandé et obtenu des mesures provisoires en Finlande contre Mylan. Ces mesures provisoires ont été annulées ultérieurement et Mylan a demandé des dommages-intérêts afin d’être dédommagée. Dans ses conclusions du 21 septembre 2023, l’avocat général soutenait que l’article 9, paragraphe 7, de la Directive 2004/48/CE (la « Directive ») doit être interprété en ce sens qu’il s’oppose à une réglementation nationale prévoyant un régime de responsabilité sans faute .

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Will the Court of Justice Spell the End of the French Strict Liability Regime?

In the case No C-473/22 between Mylan and Gilead, the Advocate General analysed the Finnish strict liability regime primarily in the light of the lessons a

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The European Commission publishes proposals for a new pharmaceutical package

Le 26 avril 2023, la Commission européenne (CE) a publié un ensemble de propositions1 visant à modifier la législation dans le domaine pharmaceutique afin

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Spring-summer 2024: priority to the Olympics Games at the 3rd chamber of the Paris Court of 1st instance ?

The 3rd chamber of the Judicial Court of Paris is considering an organization dedicated to the litigation of the Olympic Games, between mid-May and Septemb

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E-filing of French patent applications: French PTO (INPI) shuffle its feet after messing with PLT

August & Debouzy wins its proceedings for exceeding its power (ultra vires) before the Conseil d'Etat against the decision of the Director of the