19. April 2024
Unified Patent Court starts with Main Hearings
The inaugural main hearing at the Unified Patent Court (UPC) was conducted before the Munich local division on April 16, 2024, marking a significant milestone in the still very young history of the UPC. The court reviewed a patent infringement claim filed by KraussMaffei Extrusion against Troester GmbH, making it the first substantial patent infringement hearing at the UPC. Previously, the UPC's divisions have primarily handled provisional injunctions and procedural matters within the first ten months.
In this landmark case, KraussMaffei Extrusion initiated the lawsuit against Troester in July 2023 over the patent EP 3 221 117, registered under case ID: ACT_528357/2023. Both firms are competitors in the tyre tread manufacturing sector. The early scheduling of the hearing resulted from Troester's decision to waive on counterclaim for revocation, choosing instead to focus on a pending appeal against the patent at the European Patent Office (EPO). The EPO's Boards of Appeal are expected to deliver a decision on the appeal by the end of July, after which the Munich local division will hand down its judgment.
Further, the UPC has scheduled three more infringement hearings before the summer break:
- Philips vs Belkin concerning Wifi technology in Munich on May 14,
- Kaldewei vs Bette over bathroom equipment in Düsseldorf on May 16, and
- Abbott vs Dexcom over glucose-monitoring technology in Paris on May 24
