Dear Reader,

Notwithstanding the recent heat wave, the UPC continued to turn out some landmark decisions, one of which strengthens the role of the central division. Last week the Court of Appeal ruled in the Valeo vs Bosch wiper dispute that the central division had jurisdiction even where only one or some of the defendants are domiciled outside UPC territory. The specific case was referred back to the central division Paris from the local division Düsseldorf. The ruling could mean more cases end up at the central divisions in Paris and Milan, thus reducing the concentration of cases at German divisions. The UPC's Administrative Committee reportedly convened to discuss this imbalance last Friday.

Meanwhile, the pandemic may have subsided but the fight over COVID-19 vaccines has not. BioNTech and Pfizer successfully fended off Promosome's mRNA vaccine attack at the Düsseldorf local division, with the court finding Promosome’s patent invalid for lack of novelty. In another healthcare case, Hologic secured a cross-border sales ban against Siemens Healthineers' mammography system in Germany, France and the Netherlands – a ruling Siemens is already appealing.

National courts have been equally busy. In Munich, Infineon continued its winning streak against Chinese gallium nitride chipmaker Innoscience with the Regional Court finding the latter’s products infringe another of Infineon’s patents. And in its LTE dispute with Oppo, KPN's appeal against an invalidity ruling failed before the Federal Court of Justice – though with additional UPC filings against Oppo in The Hague and Düsseldorf, this battle is far from over.