German firm Bardehle Pagenberg has topped a ranking of law firms dealing with the most patents at the Unified Patent Court (UPC), with international firms Taylor Wessing and Bird & Bird making up the top three.

The ranking was drawn up by the European Patent Litigators Association (EPLIT) on the second anniversary of the UPC and shows that it is predominantly German IP firms and the larger European corporate law firms that are appearing on the court’s caseload register.

It should be noted, however, that many of the cases involve multiple law firms and the numbers might not accurately reflect all the law firms involved in every action. 

Germany is dominating on a number of other fronts at the UPC. Up to the end of May, the court received a total of 883 cases. Of the 320 infringements claims so far filed, 244 are located in one of the four German local divisions. The rest are spread out between Paris, the Hague, Milan, the Nordic Baltic regional division, Copenhagen, Brussels, Vienna, Helsinki and Lisbon.

Some 304 counterclaims for revocation have been filed with the court’s local and regional divisions. But the UPC says this figure gives an inflated impression, as up until a few months ago each defendant could file an individual claim for revocation. The 304 counterclaims for revocation come from 174 individual infringement actions.

German was initially the predominant language, but English now accounts for 55% of proceedings at the courts of first instance, with German making up 38% of proceedings. The remainder are in French, Italian, Danish and Dutch.

Commenting on its position in second place, Taylor Wessing London partner Amanda Ebbutt said: “We now have experience across nine of the local and regional divisions of the UPC, as well as the Central Division and the Court of Appeal.”

She added: “Two years in, we’re confident in the court’s development. We expanded our patent litigation practice last month with the addition of a team lead by Jules Fabre to our Paris office, strengthening our offering to better serve our clients’ needs.”

Oliver Jan Jüngst, a Düsseldorf-based partner at third-ranked Bird & Bird, said that the firm’s UPC practice includes practitioners from many of its European offices, including the UK. “We are very proud of our involvement before the UPC, having been involved with many of the seminal UPC decisions,” he said. 

EPLIT is an association for European patent attorneys who may act before the UPC, national courts and in inter partes proceedings before the European Patent Office.

The top 25 law firms ranked by number of different patents they are dealing with at the UPC , as of 1 June are: