Journal of Intellectual Property (J Intellect Property; JIP)

KCI Indexed
OPEN ACCESS, PEER REVIEWED

pISSN 1975-5945
eISSN 2733-8487
Research Article

Comity in International Intellectual Property Law: Analyzing the Jurisprudence of the Unified Patent Court Regarding Its Concurrent Jurisdiction with the European Patent Office

Research Fellow, Korea Intellectual Property Protection Agency, Republic of Korea

Correspondence to Jinyup Kim (kjy3751@hanmail.net)

Volume 21, Number 3, Pages 51-73, September 2026.
Journal of Intellectual Property 2026;21(3):51-73. https://doi.org/10.34122/jip.2026.21.3.51
Received on June 08, 2026, Revised on June 13, 2026, Accepted on September 04, 2026, Published on September 30, 2026.
Copyright © 2026 Korea Institute of Intellectual Property.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Abstract

Comity has long been considered and invoked by international courts and tribunals for various purposes. Particularly, some courts and tribunals have referred to comity when addressing problems such as potential conflicting decisions. This article argues that the concept has also been found in international intellectual property law, particularly the European Patent law. That is, since its establishment in 2023, the Unified Patent Court has exercised jurisdiction over the infringements or revocation of European patents along with the European Patent Office. As such concurrent jurisdiction and parallel proceedings can cause conflicting decisions, the Court has issued a number of decisions that address a number of relevant issues. This article analyzes the decisions to identify what issues have been addressed by the Court and shows how the concept of comity has been embodied. Ultimately, this article finds that the concept of comity has served as a normative foundation in the decision of the Boards of Appeal of the EPO as in the cases of other international courts or tribunals.
Keywords

comity, Unified Patent Court, European Patent Office, jurisdiction, parallel proceedings

Notes

Conflicts of Interest

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Funding

The author received manuscript fees for this article from Korea Institute of Intellectual Property.

Section