Court fees and costs (UPC)

Definition : Court fees and costs (UPC)

Court costs before the Unified Patent Court include the fees owed to the Court and the representation and expert costs incurred by the parties. Their regime is set by the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, by the Rules of Procedure and by the scale adopted by the Administrative Committee. Court costs are higher than in France but remain lower than the combined cost of several national proceedings, which is one of the economic arguments in favour of the UPC.

Court fees

First, the infringement action gives rise to a fixed fee, supplemented by a value-based fee where the value of the dispute exceeds a threshold, according to a progressive scale. Next, the revocation action brought as a principal action and the counterclaim for revocation give rise to fixed fees, the second being capped. Finally, the appeal gives rise to its own fees. Reductions are granted to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, natural persons, non-profit organisations, universities and public research organisations, as well as in case of early withdrawal or settlement. The amounts are set by decision of the Administrative Committee and revised periodically: they must be checked on the date of the action on the website of the Unified Patent Court.

Le barème applicable depuis le 1er janvier 2026 a été adopté par la décision du comité administratif du 4 novembre 2025. La taxe fixe de l’action en contrefaçon est passée de 11 000 à 14 600 euros, celle de l’action en nullité de 20 000 à 26 500 euros, la demande de mesures provisoires supporte désormais une taxe proportionnelle en plus de sa taxe fixe, et la demande de conservation des preuves est passée de 350 à 5 000 euros. Les petites et micro-entreprises acquittent la moitié des taxes, contre 60 % auparavant, et 65 % des taxes sont remboursées en cas d’accord conclu par l’intermédiaire du centre de médiation et d’arbitrage avant la clôture de la phase intermédiaire.

Allocation of costs and recovery ceilings

The losing party bears in principle the reasonable and proportionate court costs of the successful party, up to ceilings set according to the value of the dispute, on a scale ranging from a few tens of thousands of euros for small disputes to several million euros for very high-value disputes. The Court may raise or lower these ceilings in exceptional cases, and apportion costs where each party is partly successful. A party may apply for security for costs. Expert and translation costs follow the same regime.

Key points

In practice, the value of the dispute, declared by the claimant and controlled by the Court, determines both the fees and the ceiling of recoverable costs: setting it is a strategic choice from the statement of claim. The budget of an action before the UPC must include the risk of being ordered to pay the opponent’s costs, which is one of the elements in assessing litigation funding. The firm draws up these budgets, as presented on the page attorney before the Unified Patent Court.