UPC Court of Appeal: The Role of dependent claims when interpreting an independent claim

The question of whether conclusions can be drawn from the subject matter of a dependent claim and its features when interpreting the main claim depends on the circumstances of the individual case. If the dependent claim is only adding an additional feature that does not provide a more specific description of the features of the main claim, it generally argues against the possibility of drawing conclusions about the interpretation of the main claim from this dependent claim. When the claims are drafted in ‘medical use-format’, it is an inherent claim feature that the claimed product must be objectively suitable for the claimed use, i.e. be therapeutically effective. This requires that the claimed treatment causes a noticeable improvement of the medical condition of the patient suffering from the disease mentioned in the claim, i.e. the treatment must be meaningful. The fact that the skilled person does not derive any minimum required effect from the claim or the description does not lead to another conclusion, since the feature of therapeutic effect does not follow from the claim language that is to be interpreted, but from the use of the medical use claim format. (UPC 15 November 2025;CoA 528/2024;CoA 529/2024).