Article 49

Language of proceedings at the Court of First Instance

1.   The language of proceedings before any local or regional division shall be an official European Union language which is the official language or one of the official languages of the Contracting Member State hosting the relevant division, or the official language(s) designated by Contracting Member States sharing a regional division.

2.   Notwithstanding paragraph 1, Contracting Member States may designate one or more of the official languages of the European Patent Office as the language of proceedings of their local or regional division.

3.   The parties may agree on the use of the language in which the patent was granted as the language of proceedings, subject to approval by the competent panel. If the panel does not approve their choice, the parties may request that the case be referred to the central division.

4.   With the agreement of the parties the competent panel may, on grounds of convenience and fairness, decide on the use of the language in which the patent was granted as the language of proceedings.

5.   At the request of one of the parties and after having heard the other parties and the competent panel, the President of the Court of First Instance may, on grounds of fairness and taking into account all relevant circumstances, including the position of parties, in particular the position of the defendant, decide on the use of the language in which the patent was granted as language of proceedings. In this case the President of the Court of First Instance shall assess the need for specific translation and interpretation arrangements.

6.   The language of proceedings at the central division shall be the language in which the patent concerned was granted.

Case Law

IPPT20231103, UPC CFI, LD Munich, Amgen v Sanofi-Aventis

Change of the language of the proceedings from German to English, the language of the patent, subject to the agreement of both parties and the other members of the panel (Rule 322 RoP, article 49 UPCA).

IPPT20231018, UPC CFI, President, Plant-e v Arkyne

Language of the proceedings changed from Dutch into English, the language in which the patent was granted (Article 49 UPCA, Rule 323 RoP). Both parties have a good command of English, which is one of their working languages and also the language in which the exchanges prior to the infringement action have been conducted. Consequently, the use of English would not affect the interests of the Respondents, who have already provided a translation of the statement of claim which was served on 10 August 2023. It follows from Art. 49 (5) UPCA that it may be sufficient that - amongst all relevant circumstances also to be considered - the language initially chosen is significantly detrimental to the Applicant.