Unified Patent Court
Appeal n°:
Einheitliches Patentgericht
UPC_CoA_405/2024
APL_40553/2024
App_43889/2024
PROCEDURAL ORDER
of the Court of Appeal of the Unified Patent Court
issued on 30 July 2024
A PPELLANT (APPLICANT IN THE PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE COURT OF F IRST INSTANCE)
Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
121 Seaport Blvd, 02210 Boston (MA), United States
represented by attorney-at-law Elena Hennecke (Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringer)
RESPONDENTS (DEFENDANTS IN THE PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE COURT OF F IRST INSTANCE)
- Amgen Technology (Ireland) Unlimited Company
Pottery Road, A96 F2A8, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland 2. Amgen N.V.
Telecomlaan 5-7, 1831 Machelen, Belgium 3. Amgen GmbH
Riesstraße 24, 80992 Munich, Germany 4. Amgen GmbH
Franz-Josefs-Kai 47, 1010 Vienna, Austria 5. Amgen AB
Gustav IIIs Blvd 54, 16974 Solna, Sweden 6. Amgen S.A.S.
18-20 Quai du Point du Jour, 92100 Boulogne-Billancourt, France 7. Amgen s.r.l.
Via Enrico Tazzoli 6, 20154 Milan, Italy
8) Amgen Biofarmacêutica Lda.
Avenida José Malhoa, 19, 1070-157 Lisboa, Portugal
9) Amgen Zdravila D.O.O.
Šmartinska cesta 140, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
represented by attorney-at-law Prof. Dr. Tilman Müller-Stoy (Bardehle Pagenberg)
PATENT AT ISSUE
EP 3167888
PANEL AND DECIDING JUDGES
Panel 1c:
- Klaus Grabinski, President of the Court of Appeal
- Peter Blok, Legally qualified judge and judge-rapporteur
- Emanuela Germano, Legally qualified judge
LANGUAGE OF THE PROCEEDINGS
English
IMPUGNED ORDER OF THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
- Orders of the Court of First Instance of the Unified Patent Court, Local Division Hamburg dated 26 June 2024 and 17 July 2024
- Numbers attributed by the Court of First Instance:
FACTS AND REQUESTS OF THE PARTIES
- The appellant lodged an application for provisional measures against the respondents with the Hamburg Local Division of the Court of First Instance.
- In the impugned order the Court of First Instance dismissed the application, ordered the appellant to pay the costs of the proceedings and set the value of the dispute at € 100,000,000.00.
- The appellant lodged an appeal against the impugned order. In its amended statement of appeal and statement of grounds of appeal, the appellant submitted a number of requests, including the request sub C.I for expedition of the appeal pursuant to Rule 9.3(b) of the Rules of Procedure of the Unified Patent Court (hereinafter: RoP).
GROUNDS FOR THE ORDER
-
The request for expedition of the appeal is rejected.
-
Under R. 9.3(b) RoP the Court may shorten any time period on a reasoned request by a party. When considering such a request, the Court has to balance the interests of both parties, whereby due account must be given to the principles of due process, among which equality of arms (CoA 19 June 2024, UPC_CoA_301/2024 APL_33746/2024 App_35055/2024).
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The Court of Appeal does not consider that the circumstances of the present case are so urgent that the interests of the appellant outweigh those of the respondents. The appellant’s arguments that it is seeking patent protection as soon as possible and that the appeal concerns a purely legal issue, are not sufficient to shorten the time limit for lodging the statement of response. This time period is already relatively short for appeals against orders referred to in R. 220.1(c) RoP, such as the present appeal, namely only 15 days. The fact that the appellant did not make use of the entire time period within which it could have lodged its statement of grounds of appeal, does not lead to a different assessment.
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As the decision on the request has no adverse effect on the respondents and in view of the urgency of a decision on the request, it was not necessary to hear the respondents before issuing this order.
PROCEDURAL ORDER
- The request for expedition is rejected.
This procedural order was issued on 30 July 2024.
Klaus Grabinski
President of the Court of Appeal
Peter Blok
Legally qualified judge and judge-rapporteur
Emanuela Germano
Legally qualified judge