QIAGEN Sciences v bioMérieux (CFI, 15 July 2025)

Dhenne Avocats · 10 October 2026

Our analysis

Summary

By order of 15 July 2025 (UPC_CFI_181/2025, App_27426/2025), the judge rapporteur Schumacher (Düsseldorf Local Division) set the protection regime for confidential information produced by bioMérieux S.A. and bioMérieux Deutschland in their statement of defence to QIAGEN Sciences’ infringement action under EP 2 726 883. The order clarifies how representatives’ teams, employees and external experts are treated.

Question

Who on the claimant’s side may access the confidential information, and can a prior art document be protected?

Decision

The information in the statement of defence and exhibits BB 6 to BB 9, whose confidentiality was not disputed, is protected (paragraph 14). Protection of exhibit BB 10 is refused: prior art is neither a trade secret nor confidential, and the explanation of what could be inferred from it was not specific enough (paragraphs 11 to 13), access to it is deferred by one week (paragraphs 30 to 32). Representatives are free to choose their team members, for whom they are responsible, without having to name them (paragraphs 17 to 21), four named QIAGEN employees are given access, with no exclusion of those involved in patent prosecution (paragraphs 22 and 23). External experts, who are not bound by the professional rules applying to representatives, must be named in advance (paragraphs 24 to 29).

Key points for practice

• Practical point: a party wishing to involve an external expert must name each member of the expert’s team, the team of lawyers and patent attorneys may remain unnamed, under their responsibility.

Provisions applied

Agreement on a Unified Patent Court

Arts 48 and 58

Rules of Procedure

Rules 262.2 and 262A

Directive (EU) 2016/943

Art. 9(1) and (2)(a)

Case law cited

Daedalus Prime v Xiaomi, 12 February 2025 and Network System Technologies v Qualcomm, 3 July 2025, Court of Appeal, AYLO v DISH, 3 July 2024, Mannheim Local Division, Curio Bioscience v 10x Genomics, 8 August 2024, Düsseldorf Local Division, Abbott v Dexcom, 9 August 2024, Munich Local Division, Munich Local Division, NEC v TCL, 14 August 2024, Sanofi v Accord, 14 January 2025, and Promosome v BioNTech, 10 March 2025

Related decisions

• QIAGEN Sciences, 23 July 2025, order extending time limits because of deferred access to confidential exhibits.

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.