Panasonic Holdings v Xiaomi Technology Germany (CoA, 9 April 2024)

Dhenne Avocats · 10 October 2026

Our analysis

Summary

By order of 9 April 2024 (UPC_CoA_86/2024, App_17640/2024), the judge-rapporteur of the Court of Appeal held that the statement of appeal and the statement of grounds of appeal filed by Panasonic against a procedural order of the Mannheim Local Division of 9 February 2024 were to be treated as served on Xiaomi on 3 April 2024. The Case Management System (CMS) had been wrongly configured, so that the notices received by Xiaomi’s representative were inconsistent. The order is of practical interest for its pragmatic approach: a CMS malfunction should not shorten a party’s time to respond.

Question

On what date is the statement of appeal and statement of grounds deemed served where the CMS was wrongly configured and the information received by the respondent’s representative was contradictory?

Decision

Chapter 2 of the Rules of Procedure on service (Rules 270 to 279) applies before the Court of Appeal, and service may be effected within the CMS under Rule 271.2 (paragraph 1). Because the CMS operated as it does for service of a statement of claim at first instance, the representative had to accept service with an access code, the date of log-in being the date of service (paragraph 2). The notification was not visible in the case file, a later message referred to 13 March 2024, and the CMS recorded service on 3 April 2024, the day of acceptance (paragraphs 3 to 5). In the interests of due process and legal certainty, the Court adopted that date, so the statement of response must be lodged by 18 April 2024 (paragraph 6).

Key points for practice

• The service rules in Chapter 2 of the Rules of Procedure apply on appeal, including service within the CMS under Rule 271.2 (paragraph 1).
• Where a CMS configuration error leaves the date of service uncertain, the Court of Appeal may itself fix that date and, with it, the time limit for the response (paragraph 6).

Provisions applied

Rules of Procedure

Rules 270 to 279, 271.1, 271.2 and 271.6

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.