2026-04-23 - LD Düsseldorf - Canfield Scientific et al. v. Quantificare - UPC_CFI_106/2025

GERMAN: Die Feststellung einer Benutzungshandlung in einem Vertragsmitgliedstaat ist ausreichend, um eine Anordnung auch in Bezug auf die weiteren Vertragsmitgliedstaaten zu treffen, in denen das Patent in Kraft ist. Dies gilt auch dann, wenn eine Benutzungshandlung nur in demjenigen Vertragsmitgliedsstaat festgestellt werden kann, für den der Patentinhaber aus prozessualen Gründen mit der Verletzungsklage keine Ansprüche geltend macht („carve out“). ENGLISH: For an order to be issued in respect of all Contracting Member States in which the patent is in force, it is sufficient to determine an infringing act in one Contracting Member State. This applies even if an infringing act can only be determined in a Contracting Member State in which the patent proprietor does not assert any claims in the infringement action for procedural reasons (‘carve out’).

The Düsseldorf Local Division ruled that under Art. 34 UPCA, finding an infringing act in a single Contracting Member State suffices to issue an order extending to all CMS in which the patent is in force, even where the patent proprietor has procedurally carved out one CMS (here Germany, due to parallel national infringement proceedings). On claim construction, the panel rejected restrictive readings limiting the device to fixed-focus optics, requiring two separate lens systems, or imposing a temporal sequence between distance-setting and signalling. Literal infringement of claims 1 and 14 was found and the inventive-step revocation counterclaim was dismissed against six prior-art combinations. The court further held that R. 263.1 RoP requires a reasoned application for any claim expansion in the reply, and that R. 119 RoP provisional damages do not require exceptional financial circumstances of the patentee. Finally, building on UPC_CoA_930/2025 (EOFlow v. Insulet), the court declined to subject Art. 67 UPCA disclosure to a confidentiality order but added an explicit purpose-limitation clause to the operative part.