2024-10-17 - CD Munich - NanoString v. President And Fellows Of Harvard College - UPC_CFI_252/2023

1. The Court must examine its international jurisdiction of its own motion when this is required under Union law. 2. Pursuant to Art. 30 of the Brussels I recast Regulation, the UPC may stay proceedings where a related action is pending in a national court. In view of the circumstances of the case the Central Division does not exercise its discretionary power to stay the proceedings. 3. The assessment of novelty within the meaning of Art. 54(1) EPC requires the determination of the whole content of the prior publication. It is decisive whether the subject-matter of the claim with all its features is directly and unambiguously disclosed in the prior art citation. 4. Under the front-loaded system of UPC proceedings, parties are under an obligation to set out their full case as early as possible. Permission for subsequent request to amend under Rule 50.2 RoP in connection with Rule 30.2 RoP is not given as the auxiliary request could and should have been filed earlier.

In this decision, the Munich Central Division denied the application for a stay pending national proceedings and revoked the patent in suit entirely for FR, DE and NL. The Court goes into details regarding matters of jurisdiction, lis pendens and the admissibility of (late) auxiliary requests.