Context: Amazon received the kind of “premature Christmas present” from the Unified Patent Court’s (UPC) Mannheim Local Division (LD) that it would rather have passed on. On December 22, 2025, the Mannheim LD upheld, further to a November 14, 2025 hearing, InterDigital’s anti-interim-license injunction (AILI), setting a penalty of up to €50 million for the initial fine (which could be increased later) and informing the European Commission’s (EC) Directorate-Generals for Competition (DG COMP) and Trade (DG TRADE) of the situation, implicitly suggesting World Trade Organization (WTO) action against the UK (December 25, 2025 ip fray article). The amount of the potential fine was justified with the importance of the order, but also referencing the concept of deterrence in accordance with UPC Court of Appeal (CoA) case law. Under EU law, deterrence can justify a lot against a company the size of Amazon (December 26, 2025 ip fray article). Amazon appealed as expected.
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Court and counsel
For the CoA, the decision was entered by President Dr. Klaus Grabinski in his capacity as Standing Judge.
First-instance (Mannheim LD) panel: Presiding Judge (and here, judge-rapporteur) Professor Peter Tochtermann, Judge Dirk Boettcher (“Blttcher” in German), and Judge András Kupecz (CD Munich).
Counsel for InterDigital: Arnold Ruess‘s Cordula Schumacher, Dr. Lisa Rieth, Tim Smentkowski, and Julija Kravtsova, as well as Dr. Marina Wehler by video. The ex parte AILI and its post-hearing affirmance by the Mannheim LD were UPC and SEP achievements for Arnold Ruess. From the UK, Bird & Bird’s Mark Livsey attended the hearing in person. U.S. attorney Richard Kamprath of McKool Smith was also among the remote attendees of the November 14, 2025 Mannheim LD hearing. In-house litigation counsel Steven Akerley attended in person, and several other InterDigital lawyers and executives followed the video stream.
Counsel for Amazon:
- In person at the Mannheim LD hearing: Hoyng Rokh Monegier’s Klaus Haft, Sven Krause, Roeland Grijpink, Dr. Léon Dijkman, Moritz Lohr, Dr. Nico Schur, and Antonia Wilhelm; as well as (from the UK) Hogan Lovells’s Paul Brown.
- By video: Hoyng Rokh Monegier’s Kay Kasper; Hogan Lovells UK’s Will Buswell and Ian Moss; Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton’s Martin Bader and Stephen Korniczky; and Amazon VP IP Scott Hayden and Associate General Counsel IP Marc Ascolese.