2025-10-13 - LD Paris - Sun Patent Trust v. Vivo - UPC_CFI_362/2025

Rule 19.6 of the Rules of Procedure (RoP) states that when a preliminary objection is filed, this should not affect the deadline for filing the statement of defence, unless the rapporteur judge decides otherwise. In the present SEP patent litigation, the defendants have been prepared to address the FRAND issue ever since their representatives became aware of the case. As the main claimant rightly argued, the defendants would have raised a FRAND defence anyway. Therefore, the judge rapporteur considers that there are no exceptional circumstances that could derogate from the principle of procedural efficiency, whereby the filing of a preliminary objection should not slow down the pace of the main proceedings.

The Paris LD judge-rapporteur denied Vivo's request to postpone the Statement of Defence deadline pending resolution of its preliminary objection challenging UPC jurisdiction over FRAND rate determination claims. Applying R. 19.6 RoP, the judge held that no exceptional circumstances existed because Vivo was already prepared to address FRAND as a defense.