2026-09-04 - CoA - Surf Loch v. Whitewater West Industries et al. - UPC-COA-0000092/2026
- Aktenzeichen:
- UPC-COA-0000092/2026
- Datum:
- Spruchkörper:
- Court of Appeal - Luxembourg (LU)
- Art:
- Decision
- Parteien:
- Surf Loch LLC v. WhiteWater West Industries Inc., American Wave Machines, Inc.
Kernaussage: The Court of Appeal refused a third party's request under R.
2026-09-04 - CoA - Surf Loch
v.
Whitewater West Industries et al. - UPC-COA-0000092/2026
notable
The Court of Appeal refused a third party's request under R. 262.1(b) RoP for immediate access to the written pleadings and evidence of pending appeal proceedings. It applied the framework set out in Ocado and Nicoventures: the applicant's interest is balanced against the general interests protected by Art. 45 UPCA, among them the integrity of ongoing proceedings, and access before the proceedings end requires a direct interest in their subject-matter. An applicant who is not involved in any ongoing dispute over the validity or the infringement of the patent at issue must supply other concrete and relevant information justifying immediate access; a bare assertion of being a direct competitor in a similar field of technology does not suffice. Cease-and-desist letters that the patentee sent to third parties were held not to amount to a present assertion or an imminent enforcement threat against the applicant, and terminated US IPR proceedings established nothing without an explanation of why the comparison of positions mattered. The threshold is higher still where access is sought in pending appeal proceedings, because the applicant can already draw on the first-instance decision and may request the first-instance file after those proceedings have closed.