Rule 23 – Lodging of the Statement of defence

The defendant shall lodge a Statement of defence within three months of service of the Statement of claim.

Case law

IPPT20240212, UPC CFI, LD Paris, Dexcom v Abbott

IPPT20240212, UPC CFI, LD Paris, Abbott v Dexcom
Extension and alignment of deadline for filling Statement of Defence by multiple defendants in accordance with agreement between the parties at case management hearing, which is considered reasonable by the judge-rapporteur (Rule 9(3) RoP, Rule 23 RoP, Rule 334 RoP).

IPPT20231218, UPC CFI, LD Paris, Hewlett-Packard v Lama
Request for extension of time limit for filing Statement of defence of 3 months rejected (Rule 25 RoP). Defendant cannot legitimately invoke its own negligence in that it did not open the documents in support of the statement of claim on the CMS until 4 weeks after the date of communication of the access code in order to be granted its request for an extension of the statutory time limit of 3 months for submitting its statement of defence.

IPPT20231027, UPC CFI, LD Hamburg, 10x Genomics v Vizgen

Extension of time to file Statement of Defense with the period of time that the plaintiffs allowed to elapse with the subsequent submission of the annexes.

IPPT20231004, UPC CFI, LD Hamburg, AGFA v Gucci

Extension and alignment of deadline for lodging Statement of Defence granted as agreed. Extension and alignment of deadline for lodging Preliminary Objection because of procedural advantage and representative for defendants helping to make a prompt and successful service  of the Statement of Claim possible though risking a shortening of the relevant deadlines. Extension in alignment with UPC system (two months before Statement of Defence).

IPPT20231013, UPC CoA, Amgen v Sanofi-Aventis
Valid date of service of statement of claim with Annexes (Rule 271 RoP). A Statement of claim, even if it refers to or announces the later submission of Annexes, can be validly served on a defendant, provided that the Statement of claim without the Annexes enables the defendant to assert its rights in legal proceedings before the courts of the UPC. A Statement of claim must therefore at least state with certainty the subject matter and cause of action. Only annexes that are indispensable for the understanding of the subject matter and the cause of action must be served (and where necessary translated) on a defendant, together with the Statement of claim. Extension of terms for Preliminary objections and Statement of defense because of unavailability of Annexes (Rules 13, 19 and 23 RoP). If a claimant did not upload the Annexes simultaneously with the Statement of claim in the CMS, and thus did not comply with Rule 13.2, and as a consequence these have not been available when the representative of the defendant accessed the CMS with the Access Code contained in the Notice, this in itself is sufficient to constitute a reasoned request by a defendant for an extension of the terms mentioned in Rules 19.1 and 23 RoP for lodging a Preliminary objection and the Statement of defense, regardless of the nature and/or content of the Annexes. Failing any specific circumstances of an individual case which calls for another term, which have to be brought forward by the claimant, the extension of the terms mentioned in Rules 19.1 and 23 shall compensate for and thus be equal to the period during which the Annexes have not been available after service of the Statement of claim contrary to Rule 13.2 RoP.