PATENT | UPC Hague Local Division on plant variety

On 31 July 2024, the Hague Local Division of the Unified Patent Court granted preliminary injunction no. 195/2024 in favour of a mushroom developer. As far as the urgency requirement is concerned, the Court held that the commercialisation of the infringing product outside of the Contracting Member States is not relevant before the Unified Patent Court and that the performance of technical analyses requiring several months does not delay the action unreasonably if such analyses are necessary to gather more evidence on the infringement. The Court held that the patent was also valid, in that – unlike that argued by the defendant – mushrooms do not fall within the scope of Art. 53(b) of the European Patent Convention, which excludes “animal and plant varieties” from patentability since, according to biological taxonomy, mushrooms belong to the distinct kingdom Fungi.

Newsletter n. 99 – August/September 2024