DISH Technologies v AYLO PREMIUM (CFI, 6 August 2025)

Dhenne Avocats · 10 October 2026

Our analysis

Summary

By order of 6 August 2025 (UPC_CFI_471/2023, ACT_594191/2023, App_66435/2024), the judge rapporteur of the Mannheim Local Division (Judge Böttcher) dismissed the AYLO defendants’ application to fix the lawyers’ fees incurred in responding to the appeal, eventually withdrawn, that DISH Technologies and Sling TV had brought against a security for costs order. The order sets a useful timing rule: the costs of a procedural incident are not assessed separately.

Question

Can costs incurred in connection with a procedural order, such as an order for security under Rule 158 RoP, be fixed in separate proceedings before the decision on the merits?

Decision

The application is inadmissible: the Rules of Procedure provide for costs to be fixed after the decision on the merits and, where relevant, the decision on damages, an early partial application under Rule 150 RoP is inconsistent with that scheme and would fragment the proceedings. In the alternative, it has become moot: the merits decision of 6 June 2025 dealt with costs globally (court fees for the infringement action borne by the claimants, those for the counterclaim by the defendants, each party bearing its own extrajudicial costs, paragraph 174 of that decision), as Art. 69 UPCA and Rule 118.5 RoP allow, with no need to apportion the costs of each incident.

Key points for practice

• Practical point: costs of a procedural incident are claimed in the cost fixing that follows the merits decision, parties should make sure they are addressed in the costs decision itself.

Provisions applied

Agreement on a Unified Patent Court

Art. 69(1) to (3)

Rules of Procedure

Rules 9.1, 118.5, 150, 157, 158, 221.1 and 265.2

Case law cited

DISH Technologies v AYLO PREMIUM, Mannheim Local Division, 6 June 2025, decision on the merits, paragraph 174.

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.