This is a summary of developments in and around the Unified Patent Court (UPC) in the week since our June 8, 2025 UPC Roundup.
1. CoA: intervener’s bid to halt enforcement of infringement ruling denied (Chainzone Technology (intervener) v. SWARCO)
The Court of Appeal (CoA) second panel rejected Chainzone’s application to suspend enforcement of the Vienna Local Division’s (LD) decision in the ongoing patent dispute. The Vienna LD had upheld Swarco’s claims, ordering Strabag to disclose information, recall and destroy infringing products, and reimburse legal costs, an order Chainzone—an intervener on Strabag’s side—contested. The CoA held that Chainzone had not demonstrated any manifest legal or procedural error or infringement of fundamental rights to justify suspending enforcement.
2. CD Munich: admission of new evidence, including Swedish consulting report (TCL v. Corning)
In the ongoing revocation action, TCL had submitted an application requesting the Munich seat of the Central Division (CD) to admit new arguments and a Swedish Patent Office consulting report that were not included in the original statement of revocation. This report, finalized only on April 25, 2025, supports TCL’s inventive step challenge, specifically attacking the patent’s validity based on example 15 of prior art document D20. Despite Corning’s objections regarding timing and procedure under Rule 263 of the Rules of Procedure (RoP), the court admitted TCL’s late submissions, including new arguments and the Swedish Consulting Report, citing justified delay. Following a June 11, 2025 video conference, both parties agreed to a procedural compromise: a two-week extension for Corning to file its defense to revocation. While Corning had initially requested four weeks to align with parallel proceedings and conduct technical testing, the court granted only the agreed two-week extension and rejected all other requests.
3. Mannheim LD: another setback for DISH in streaming patent battle (Dish v. Aylo)
DISH Network suffered another setback in its patent dispute with Aylo, as the UPC’s Mannheim LD dismissed infringement claims over DISH’s patent on adaptive video streaming. This follows earlier defeats in German and UPC courts, as well as a revocation by the European Patent Office (EPO). The ruling carries broader implications; the court held that national laws apply to pre-UPC acts of infringement by equivalents, while the UPC must develop its own doctrine of equivalents for post June 1, 2023 cases. The court also ruled that dependent claims can’t be invalidated without first defeating the independent claim they rely on. Lastly, it adopted a flexible approach to auxiliary requests, allowing more if numerous invalidity attacks are raised and the case remains manageable.
4. New Cases
4.1 Infringement (main) proceedings
- Eyesmatch v. Microsoft (Dusseldorf LD) (link to LinkedIn post)
- Avago Technologies v. Renault Retail (Munich LD) (link to LinkedIn post)
- Headwater Research v. Apple (Dusseldorf LD) (link to LinkedIn post)
- Sol IP v. BYD (The Hague LD) (May 27, 2025 ip fray article; this is the first of two such cases and it has now surfaced in the public case registry)
4.2 Preliminary injunction proceedings
- Hewlett-Packard v. Andreas Rentmeister (Dusseldorf LD) (link to LinkedIn post)
- Washtower IP v. BEGA BBK (The Hague LD)
5. Recent and upcoming hearings
5.1 Recent hearings
- Wednesday, June 11, 2025:
- Sumi Agro v. Syngenta (CoA; Rule 220.2 RoP appeal)
- Oerlikon Textile v. Himson Engineering (Milan LD)
- Thursday, June 12, 2025:
- Roche Diabetes Care v. Tandem Diabetes Care & VitalAire (Hamburg LD)
5.2 Upcoming hearings
- Tuesday, June 17, 2025:
- Headwater Research v. Samsung Electronics (Dusseldorf LD)
- Suinno Mobile & AI Technologies Licensing Oy v. Microsoft Corporation and vice-versa (CoA)
- Wednesday, June 18, 2025:
- Qualcomm v. Network Systems Technologies (CoA; cross-appeals Rule 327 RoP)
- Winnow Solutions v. Orbisk (The Hague LD)
- Friday, June 20, 2025:
- N.J. Diffusion v. Gisela Mayer (Paris LD)
- Monday, June 30, 2025:
- Chint New Energy Technology v. JingAo Solar (CoA; Rule 220.2 RoP appeal)
6. Around the court
The UPC has announced a phased rollout of its new Case Management System (CMS) to ensure a stable transition with minimal risks. The first phase will begin in July 2025, focusing on opt-out functionalities and registration of representatives, giving users time to familiarize themselves with the updated platform. The second phase, scheduled for September 2025, will make the full CMS operational for all users. Until then, the current CMS remains in use for filings and protective letters. The UPC has invited early participation in the opt-out Application Programming Interface (APIs) and plans to launch a dedicated webpage with FAQs and user guides to aid users in the transition.