Author: Philipp Bovenkamp
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LD Düsseldorf, 9 July 2025, Decision of the Court of First Instance, UPC_CFI_355/2023, UPC_CFI_186/2025
Representation Costs in Cost Proceedings: Proceedings for cost decisions under R. 150 et seq. RoP are summary proceedings. Awarding compensation for the additional costs of the cost proceedings is not envisaged in the Rules and it would give the parties an incentive to spend more resources in the summary proceedings than necessary, thus resulting in…
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Local Division Mannheim, July 9, 2025, Order of the President of the Court of First Instance, UPC_CFI_292/2025
Language of the proceedings: If the language of the proceedings is not the language in which the patent was granted, Art. 49(5) UPCA allows to change the language of the proceedings. A change, however, requires that the President of the Court of First Instance consults all parties potentially affected thereby and the panel of the…
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LD Mannheim, 2 April 2025, Decision of the Court of First Instance, UPC_CFI_365/2023
The UPC has no jurisdiction over a European Patent with regard to those national parts of UPCA member states which have already lapsed before 1 June 2023. The same applies to national parts of non-UPCA-member states: Without prejudice to Art. 83 UPCA, Art. 3 (c) UPCA vests upon the UPC jurisdiction over any pre-existing European…
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LD Mannheim, 2 April 2025, Decision of the Court of First Instance, UPC_CFI_359/2023
Strict Application Principle for Amending Patents in Defense Against Revocation: Art. 76 (1) UPCA contains a strict application principle. Accordingly, a patent proprietor, who wishes to defend its patent in a limited version, has to submit a clear and comprehensive Application to amend the patent. This includes situations where the proprietor wishes to rely on…
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LD Mannheim, April 2, 2025, order on Preliminary Objection, UPC_CFI_819/2024
Multiple Defendants may be sued in one action provided that the infringement has occured in the CMS hosting the Local Division, irrespective of a “commercial relationship”: Claimant submitted in its Statement of claim sufficient facts, which establish competence of the Local Division Mannheim for each and every defendant under Art. 33(1)(a)UPCA, which is reinforced by…
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LD Mannheim, April 1, 2025, Procedural Order of the Court of First Instance, UPC_CFI_132/2024
UPC sets strict limitations on requests for filing further briefs: The UPC emphasizes procedural efficiency and limits deviations from the standard briefing schedule outlined in Rule 12 RoP. Requests for further briefs must be explicitly justified and supported by specific evidence, outlining the necessity for exceeding the standard two mandatory and two optional briefs. Request…
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LD The Hague, April 1, 2025, Order of the Court of First Instance, UPC_CFI_499/2024
Re-establishment of rights rejected: Defendant did not show “due care” to meet the deadline to file their Statement of Defence (R. 320 RoP): The Defendant had sufficient time to prepare the Statement of Defence and failed to utilize available resources like the CMS team function or request an extension. Despite the Defendant’s illness, the Court…
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LD Munich, April 2, 2025, Procedural Order of the Court of First Instance, UPC_CFI_18/2025
Opt-out withdrawals must clearly identify the patent but don’t require listing every state where it’s valid: The Court found that listing member states in the withdrawal solely in the context of identifying the proprietor was sufficient. Including states where the patent was granted (Art. 97(1) EPC) but not validated didn’t invalidate the withdrawal. Sufficient infringement…
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CD Paris, March 31, 2025, Order of the Court of First Instance, UPC_CFI_412/2023
Limited Scope of Rectification Under Rule 353 RoP: Rectification under Rule 353 RoP is limited to obvious errors (clerical mistakes, errors in calculation, obvious slips) evident from the decision’s reasoning – in other words, a discrepancy between the judge’s intended decision and its material representation, provided that this can be deduced from a comparison between…
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LD Munich, March 31, 2025, Order of the Court of First Instance, UPC_CFI_425/2024
Patent owners are not restricted in amending patents to counterclaims for revocation: The patentee may also request amendments to the patent that are not directly related to the grounds for invalidity arising from the counterclaim. The purpose of Rule 30 RoP is to give the patentee the opportunity to ‘save’ its patent in an amended…
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LD Mannheim, September 9, 2024, procedural order, UPC_CFI_219/2023 and UPC_CFI_223/2023
If the redactions in Claimant’s reply brief in an infringement action are only subject to the non-technical part, it is not justified to grant the Defendant an extension of two months for filing its rejoinder brief re. this non-technical part starting with the date from having access to the unredcated version of the non-technical part…
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CoA, September 6, 2024, procedural order, UPC_CoA_457/2024 and UPC_CoA_458/2024
The possibility that an injunction might be granted by the Court of First Instance (Local Division) in infringement proceedings based on a patent that has been upheld in first instance revocation proceedings, but may subsequently be revoked by the Court of Appeal, is not sufficient to justify expediting the appeal proceedings.: The two Defendants in…
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LD Düsseldorf, September 6, 2024, order of the court of first instance, UPC_CFI_165/2024 and UPC_CFI_166/2024
Existence of infringement is assessed on the basis of UPC law without recourse to national patent law: Art. 25 UPCA (right to prevent the direct use of the invention) constitutes uniform substantive law and Art. 62 (1) UPCA (provisional and protective measures) uniform procedural law, which takes precedence over national patent laws so that these…
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LD Paris, 24 July 2024, Procedural order of the Court of First Instance, UPC_CFI_440/2023
Pendency of an action: The pendency of an action is determined by the date of the registration with the Division concerned – in other words, the pendency of an action is independent on whether or not the defendant has already accepted service of the statement of a claim. Same parties according to Art. 33 (4)…
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Central Division, Paris Seat, 19 July 2024, Decision of the Court of First Instance, UPC_CFI_255/2023
Concurrent pendency of invalidity proceedings before different divisions and criteria for exercising the Court’s discretion, Art. 33 (3) UPCA: In the situation of concurrently pending invalidity attacks by different parties against the same patent before different divisions (here: revocation action before CD and counterclaim(s) for revocation before LD) the local division has a discretion either…
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LD Milan, 6 June 2024, Procedural Order of the Court of First Instance, UPC_CFI_241/2023
Request for information regarding distribution channels: Showing a product at a trade fair in the territory covered by the patent does not automatically create evidence of market entry – burden of proof is with the claimant. A claimant’s request for declaration of defendant’s chain of sale/resale is not justified in case that defendant confirms that…
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LD Mannheim, 13 June 2024, Order of the Court of first instance, UPC_CFI_219/2023
Extension of time limit (only) for response to redacted FRAND submission: Claimant filed its reply brief with heavy redactions re. the FRAND part. Hence, upon Defendant’s request the deadline for filing its rejoinder brief was extended as it relates to these redactions. However, as the parts re. infringement and validity of the patent were not…