Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications v Panasonic Holdings (CoA, 18 December 2023)

Dhenne Avocats · 10 October 2026

Our analysis

Summary

By order of 18 December 2023 (UPC_CoA_472/2023, App_594327/2023), the Court of Appeal, sitting with three legally qualified judges, rejected an application by Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications and OROPE Germany to shorten the time limit for Panasonic Holdings Corporation’s response to their statement of grounds of appeal. The appeal is against the order of the President of the Court of First Instance of 27 November 2023 (UPC_CFI_222/2023) refusing to change the language of the infringement proceedings on EP 2 207 270 from German to English. The same outcome was reached on 20 December 2023 in the parallel appeal UPC_CoA_476/2023.

Question

Should the Court of Appeal shorten, under Rules 9.3(b) and 225(e) RoP, the respondent’s 15-day period to respond to the statement of grounds so that language is decided before the statement of defence falls due on 22 December 2023?

Decision

The appellants filed their grounds on 12 December 2023 using the full 15-day period under Rules 224.1(b) and 224.2(b) RoP, shortening would have left the respondent only about four working days (paragraphs 3 to 5). The appellants had not given enough weight to the respondent’s interest in adequate time to prepare. Shortening would conflict with proportionality, fairness and equity, even though the statement of defence must now be filed in German (paragraphs 6 and 7). A procedural application raising no technical question may be decided by three legally qualified judges, applying Art. 9(2) UPCA by analogy.

Key points for practice

• A request to shorten the opponent’s time limit is assessed against the time the applicant took for itself.
• Practical point: a party seeking an expedited appeal on language should lodge its grounds and its application to shorten time well ahead of the first-instance deadline it wants to protect.

Provisions applied

Agreement on a Unified Patent Court

Arts 8, 9(1) and (2), 41(3), 42 and 52(1)

Rules of Procedure

Preamble, paragraphs 2 to 4, Rules 9.3(b), 33, 34, 37.3, 57, 72, 224.1(b), 224.2(b), 225(e) and 323

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.