Barco v Yealink (Xiamen) Network Technology (CoA, 17 April 2025)

Dhenne Avocats · 10 October 2026

Our analysis

Summary

By order of 17 April 2025 (UPC_CoA_329/2025), the Court of Appeal, sitting as a single judge, rejects Barco’s application for suspensive effect of its appeal (UPC_CoA_317/2025), limited to the costs order, against the Brussels Local Division’s order of 21 March 2025. That order had dismissed the application for provisional measures based on EP 3 732 827 for lack of urgency and ordered Barco to bear Yealink’s reasonable and proportionate costs up to EUR 112,000. The order shows that the suspensive effect test applies unchanged to a costs order.

Question

Should the appeal have suspensive effect as regards the costs order, where the appellant disputes that the amount set is enforceable and relies on the difficulty of recovering payment from respondents established in China and the Netherlands?

Decision

The application is admissible but unfounded (paragraph 10). An appeal has no suspensive effect unless the appellant’s interest in maintaining the status quo exceptionally outweighs the respondent’s, for instance where the order is manifestly wrong or the appeal would become devoid of purpose (paragraph 11). Whether the costs order is correct will be decided in the appeal on provisional measures, and no manifest error is shown (paragraph 12). The enforcement risks raised do not render the appeal devoid of purpose (paragraph 13).

Key points for practice

• The alleged difficulty of recovering costs paid to a foreign company or a shell entity is not enough to obtain suspensive effect (paragraph 13).

Provisions applied

Agreement on a Unified Patent Court

Art. 74(1)

Rules of Procedure

Rules 211.1(d), 223.3 and 354.1

Case law cited

Court of Appeal, 19 June 2024, ICPillar v ARM (UPC_CoA_301/2024), Court of Appeal, 29 October 2024, Belkin v Philips (UPC_CoA_549/2024).

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.