Below, Prof. Willem Hoyng provides his unfiltered views on the decisions that were published on the website of the Unified Patent Court (“UPC”) last week. His comments offer a unique insight into the UPC’s case law, as he chairs the Advisory Board of the UPC and participated in drafting the Rules of Procedure of the UPC.
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11 August 2025
Local Division Munich, Syntorr v Arthrex
UPC_CFI_ 114/2025; UPC_CFI_358/2025
Security for costs
Facts
The defendant asks the Court to order security for a total amount of € 3.300.000. The claimant requests the Court to order no security, or to lower the amount and to allow the security to be in the term of an “anti-avoidance” insurance with a licensed EU insurer.
The JR
- announced the appointment of a Technical Judge;
- confirms the agreement on the use of visual aids during the hearing;
- informs the parties that during the oral hearing they have to discuss the points raised by the Court and will get 20-30 minutes for a closing argument;
- sets the value of the dispute;
- orders that one week before the hearing parties will give a legal cost estimate;
- states that parties are encouraged to talk (about settlement);
- sets the hearing date: 22 August 2025 at 10 a.m.
Comment
- As far as can be seen this is only an infringement case which explains the late appointment of the Technical Judge which is not an obligation in (only) an infringement case, but parties/the Court can request this. Apparently, that is what happened.
- If the Court wants to organise the hearing as indicated, it is hoped for the parties that a few days (week) before the hearing they receive the points the Court wants to discuss. Representatives should make sure that they raise all other points which they consider important as they will not be able to do that (for the first time) on appeal.
- The Court is apparently aiming at an agreement on costs so that separate proceedings are not necessary. As both counsels are Dutch and are used to try to settle costs by agreement, it is likely that clients can be spared the costs of separate cost proceedings.
12 August 2025
Local Division Düsseldorf, Headwater v Samsung
Change of language
Facts
Both parties ask to change the language of the proceedings to English (the language of the patent). The JR grants the request.
Comment
That of course makes sense between two international companies. You only wonder why the German representative of a claimant, acting for a US company, started the case in German, thereby causing, we assume, quite some extra translation costs for their clients.