In a landmark ruling (UPC-COA-903/2025), the Unified Patent Court’s Court of Appeal has reinforced the critical role of procedural language in patent litigation, confirming that **fairness** is the guiding principle when deciding whether to switch to the language of the patent. The Court upheld a shift from German to English in the *UERAN v. Xiaomi* case, highlighting that where the majority of parties are domiciled outside the jurisdiction of the original language, such a change is often necessary to ensure a level playing field. Crucially, the Court made clear that even large multinational corporations are entitled to a fair procedure and should not be forced to rely on inadequate machine translations, which can cause significant delays and additional costs. With the defendant’s position serving as the decisive factor in balanced cases, the decision underscores the importance of a proactive and strategically informed language choice from the very outset of any UPC dispute.
For German medium-sized companies, this ruling provides greater procedural predictability and ensures that international litigation before the UPC can be conducted in a way that avoids unnecessary translation burdens and associated cost and time risks, thereby improving access to effective patent enforcement and defense.
Our firm is ready to support you in navigating these procedural nuances to ensure that your international patent interests are protected with the highest level of strategic precision.
For further information, please contact Dr.-Ing. Nikolai Köllisch LL.M.