The Court of Appeal requested that the parties in the Hybridgenerator v HGSytems/ Infotech case (UPC_COA_233/2025) consent to a change of language from Danish to English.
According to Art 49(4) UPCA, the panel may, on the grounds of convenience and fairness and with the agreement of the parties, decide to use the language in which the patent was granted as the language of proceedings. The Judge Rapporteur may propose this change of their own volition at any time during the written procedure. The parties agreed to the change and the panel decided it would be fair for the Court of Appeal to provide necessary translations and do so at its own cost. The Court of Appeal held that a "change of the language of the proceedings to English will shorten the timeframe for adjudication and thus be convenient for the Court of Appeal and for the parties."
Interestingly, Art. 49(4) UPCA expressly relates to first instance proceedings and not to proceedings at the Court of Appeal. The language to be used by the Court of Appeal is determined by Art. 50 UPCA, with Art. 50(2) allowing, with the agreement of the parties, a change of the language of proceedings to the language in which the patent was granted (in this case English). This said, whilst Art. 49(4) UPCA refers to the deciding powers of the competent (first instance?) panel, Art. 50(2) UPCA only refers to the parties agreeing to the change (here at least none opposed the proposal to change the language of proceedings to English). Whilst the decision focusses on changing the language of the appeal proceedings, one can't but wonder if this decision should not also affect a change of the language of proceedings at first instance (the current appeal is on a limited point, so that further first instance proceedings will take place on this matter).
The inevitable increase in Court of Appeal case load resulting from the glut of first instance decisions on the merits we see now that the UPC is two years old has been on the mind of the profession for a while now. Clearly the UPC itself is alert to this threat as well, with a steep increase in full time equivalent judge hours for the Court of Appeal having been announced in the budget for 2025 in February. We wonder whether proposals to use English as language of proceedings at the appeal stage will become more common to assist in manage this influx of appeals.
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