Germany: Court Procedure

The Court of Appeal clarifies critical procedural rules regarding non-technical features in patent claims and the timing requirements for initiating appeals. These decisions establish important precedents for how technical character assessments must consider feature interactions and when appeal periods officially commence under the Unified Patent Court Agreement.

The UPC Court of Appeal has overturned a €2 million security for costs order, finding that a claimant's litigation insurance with anti-avoidance endorsement provides sufficient protection against unenforceability of adverse costs orders. This landmark decision addresses whether appropriate litigation insurance can substitute for traditional security mechanisms and signals that courts must properly consider such policies when assessing security applications.

The UPC has jurisdiction to issue an AASI to secure pending patent infringement proceedings before the UPC (Art. 31, 32(1)(c), 33(1)(a) UPCA) (mn. 16 et seq.)

In an era where the number of insolvencies is on the rise, a growing number of claimants involved in ongoing court proceedings are faced with the question: "What will happen to my lawsuit if the opposing party becomes insolvent?"

The claim must not be limited to the scope of preferred embodiments. The scope of a claim extends to subject-matter that the skilled person understands...

The suspensive effect may be ordered in particular if the order against which the appeal is directed is evidently incorrect. Whether there is an evident violation of the law is assessed on the basis of the factual findings.

In proceedings before the Court of Appeal, which do not involve technical issues, the Court of Appeal can decide without technically qualified judges ...

The determination of the date of service of the complaint and the grant of an extension of the deadline for the statement of defense in agreement with parties is possible.

A separation of proceedings according to R. 302.1 RoP is sensible and appropriate when dealing with a plurality of patents.