SWARCO FUTURIT Verkehrssignalsysteme v Yunex (CFI, 28 September 2026)

Dhenne Avocats · 10 October 2026

Our analysis

Summary

By procedural order of 15 September 2026, issued after the second interim conference in the joined proceedings UPC_CFI_245/2025 (infringement) and UPC_CFI_618/2025 (counterclaim for revocation), the judge-rapporteur of the Munich Local Division prepared the hearing of 2 February 2027 in the dispute between SWARCO FUTURIT and Yunex, supported by the intervener Shenzhen Dianming Technology (EP 2 643 717, limited before the EPO in March 2026). The order admits the parties’ amended requests, partly excludes Yunex’s late submissions and refuses a written examination of the contested optics, Yunex having relied on digital simulations.

Question

Are digital simulations sufficient to establish non-infringement, and which late submissions may be admitted before the hearing?

Decision

The attacked embodiment is the optics installed in the Mönchengladbach traffic signals, the test-purchase object being presumed identical in the light of the inspection proceedings (paragraph 17). Simulations prove non-infringement only if their correspondence with the contested optics is established. Yunex’s request to examine the physical optics in writing was rejected, as it had had ample time since service in March 2025 (paragraph 18). Yunex’s submissions were admitted only in so far as they concern the limitation, the rest being excluded (paragraph 20). The costs of the inspection proceedings will be decided in the main action (paragraph 19), the provisional confidentiality order of 31 August 2026 was confirmed save for one sentence, and mediation before the PMAC was suggested again (paragraph 22).

Key points for practice

• A defendant disputing infringement through simulations must show, in good time, that the model matches the real product.
• After a limitation of the patent, new submissions are confined to what the limitation makes necessary.

Provisions applied

Agreement on a Unified Patent Court

Art. 33(10)

Rules of Procedure

Rules 30.2, 102.2, 103, 105.5, 115, 118.8, 171.2, 263.3, 333 and 355

European Patent Convention

Art. 123

Case law cited

Court of Appeal, 1 August 2025 (UPC_CoA_70/2025), Paris Central Division, 25 June 2026 (UPC_CFI_425/2025), Munich Local Division, order of 19 February 2025 (ORD_24915/2024)

Prepared by Dhenne Avocats from the official decision, consulted on 10 October 2026. The database is updated every week, on Friday. Only the official text is authoritative.