SONN Patentanwälte – IP Attorneys

UPC Court of Appeal: Representation

Before the UPC, neither a legal representative of a legal entity nor any other natural person who has extensive administrative and financial powers within that legal entity - whether as a result of holding a senior management or administrative position or of owning a significant share in the legal...

UPC Court of Appeal: Suspensive Effect

Pursuant to Article 74(1) UPCA, an appeal does not have suspensive effect unless the Court of Appeal decides otherwise upon a reasoned request by one of the parties. The Court of Appeal can therefore only grant the request if the circumstances of the individual case justify an exception to the principle...

UPC Court of Appeal: Further Pleading

The written procedure before the Court of Appeal is limited to the submission of a statement of grounds of appeal and a statement of defence in appeal proceedings. Additional grounds of appeal that are not submitted within the time limit provided for in R 224.2 RoP are not admissible. A further exchange...

UPC Court of Appeal: Cost Reimbursement

If a claimant files an action for revocation without the patent proprietor having given cause for the action, and the patent proprietor waives the patent immediately at the start of the proceedings, an exception may be made to the general rule of Art 69(1) UPCA, according to which the unsuccessful...

UPC Court of Appeal: Original Disclosure

An impermissible extension ("added matter") exists if the granted claim comprises subject matter that goes beyond the content of the original application. In order to determine whether an impermissible extension exists, the court must therefore first determine what the skilled person, with the aid...

UPC Court of Appeal: Claim Interpretation

As a general principle for the interpretation of patent claims, so-called "means-plus-function" features are to be understood as any embodiment capable of performing the function in question (UPC 14. 2. 2025, CoA 382/2024).

UPC Court of Appeal: Claim Interpretation

The interpretation of a patent claim is a legal question. Therefore, the court cannot delegate the judicial task of claim interpretation to an expert, but must interpret the claim independently. The skilled person is a fictional person who cannot be equated with a real person in the technical field...

Request for apportionment of costs admissible after withdrawal of appeal

A request for apportionment of costs is not inadmissible merely because it is filed after the appeal proceedings have terminated. Such a request can initiate an ancillary procedure to resolve issues arising from the original appeal without reopening the substantive proceedings. An appropriate time...

Helmut Sonn (1939-2025)

On August 14, 2025, our former Senior Partner Helmut Sonn passed away at the age of 86. With his passing, the world of intellectual property has lost not only a leading patent attorney, but a formative spirit who shaped the global IP landscape for decades.

Helmut was a giant of a man — in many...

Opposition proceedings: insertion of multiple alternatives into a claim

Whether the replacement of a patent claim by a new claim containing a multitude of alternatives is admissible under Rule 80 EPC must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The competing interests of the parties must be balanced to determine whether multiplying the alternatives constitutes an appropriate...