UPC CFI, LD Hamburg, 10 July 2025: twice 33 auxiliary requests can be a reasonable number when the actual core thereof is small

Patent upheld in limited form (Article 65 UPCA). 

Infringement action dismissed (Article 25 UPCA): not all features of claim 1 are realised by the contested embodiments. 

Reasonable number of auxiliary requests (twice 33) (R. 30.1(c) RoP) because the actual core of the auxiliary requests is small, the opposing party is not faced with unreasonable challenges, even if the number of auxiliary requests is quite high. 

Added matter: inadmissible intermediate generalisation (Article 123(2) and (3) EPC) because the term ‘magnetic’ (as used in the application) has been omitted from the wording of the claim. 

Inventive step – prior art with different field of application (Article 56 EPC). Person skilled in the art has no reason to consult D5 when searching for a solution to the problem addressed by the patent in suit because the subject matter of D5 has a different mode of operation and a different field of application compared to the claimed system for wireless charging.  

IPPT20250710, UPC CFI, LD Hamburg, Nera Innovations v Xiaomi