Roche Diabetes Care v Tandem Diabetes Care (CFI, 26 July 2024)

Dhenne Avocats · 10 October 2026

Our analysis

Summary

By order of 25 July 2024 (UPC_CFI_88/2024, ACT_10800/2024, App_36130/2024), the President of the Court of First Instance, after consulting the panel of the Hamburg Local Division, granted the application by Tandem Diabetes Care, supported by VitalAire, and changed the language of the proceedings from German to English, the language in which EP 2 196 231 was granted, in the infringement action brought by Roche Diabetes Care. The change is not conditional on any translation or interpretation arrangements.

Question

Should the language of the proceedings be changed to the language in which the patent was granted where both sides are international companies?

Decision

The application, whose admissibility was not disputed, is well founded. As the parties’ interests are evenly balanced, both being international companies, the defendants’ position is decisive, in line with the Court of Appeal’s order of 17 April 2024. English is the language commonly used in the medical device sector. The first two defendants use it officially, VitalAire works in English within a French group, and Roche, part of a Swiss group, can be assumed to use it. Nothing justifies departing from the principle that the language of the patent is not unfair to the claimant. The parallel German proceedings and the English-language case before the Central Division are not decisive. As the Statement of claim had already been translated into English and no party sought specific arrangements, none are ordered at this stage.

Key points for practice

• Practical point: between international companies, a defendant seeking a switch to the language of the patent will in principle succeed, and the claimant must point to specific factors to resist it.

Provisions applied

Agreement on a Unified Patent Court

Arts. 49(1), (2) and (5) and 73(2)(a)

Rules of Procedure

Rules 14.2(a), 19, 37.2, 220, 321.1, 323 and 324

Case law cited

Curio Bioscience v 10x Genomics, Court of Appeal, 17 April 2024, The Hague Local Division, 18 October 2023, UPC_CFI_225/2023, Aarke v SodaStream Industries, Düsseldorf Local Division, 16 January 2024, Advanced Bionics, Mannheim Local Division, 15 April 2024

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.