UPC Court of Appeal: Change of language of proceedings

A US company sued a (comparatively smaller) US company for an English-language patent before the Düsseldorf Local Division in German. The defendant requested according to Rule 323 of the Rules of Procedure that the language of the proceedings be changed to English. The President of the Court of First Instance dismissed the request; the Court of Appeal allowed the defendant's appeal. All relevant circumstances of the specific case must be considered in the decision. Relevant circumstances are particularly the language used in the technology sector and the language in which the evidence is written. The nationality or domicile of the parties must also be considered. A party must be able to fully understand what is being presented by its representative and the other party. If the language of the proceedings is not the language of a party, that party will have to rely on translations, which is time-consuming and costly. The relative size of the parties is also relevant: a large multinational company has more resources than a small company to deal with international disputes. The language skills of the representatives and the nationality of the judges, on the other hand, are generally not relevant. Art 49(5) UPCA provides that in particular the position of the defendant must be taken into account. If the balance of interests is equal, the position of the defendant is decisive. The claimant was able to choose the language of the patent at the time of filing and thus decide for itself whether to conduct proceedings in this language. In the present case, both parties are US companies, the language of the technology field and the evidence is predominantly English. The defendant is a smaller company compared to the claimant, which makes the language discrepancy a heavier burden for the defendant than it is for the claimant. The language of the proceedings is therefore changed to English (UPC 17.4.2024, CoA 101/2024).