UPC_CFI_453/2025 – Eyesmatch v Samsung
- Court
- Local Division Mannheim
- Date
- Outcome
- Granted
- Sector
- Other
- Decision Type
- PROCEDURAL
Expert Commentary
Service Facts In this case there are 5 defendants. To date, service has been effected on three defendants but not for the Italian and Korean defendants. Parties have agreed that defendants will all accept service and that the starting date for Preliminary Objections and Statement of Defence Counterclaim for Invalidity start on 1 September 2025, and that the period for reply and answer to a counterclaim shall be extended to 16 February 2026 (which means a two weeks extension). The JR The JR rules accordingly, citing the fact that further delay with respect to service and different dates for answer by the defendants is avoided and that as part of the overall agreement, the extension to 16 February 2026 (being a short term) is acceptable. Comments 1. This in my view is the way representatives should cooperate. 2. I immediately add that the short extension agreed for the reply and the defence to the counterclaim should not be understood as that representatives can agree on extensions for vacation, Christmas break, local festivities etc. However, in this case the agreement prevented further delays because of service issues and a two weeks extension does not have to prevent a decision within 12-14 months in a Division with a normal caseload.
Full Decision Text
1 Mannheim Local Division UPC_CFI_453/2025 Order of the Court of First Instance of the Unified Patent Court issued on 27 August 2025 concerning EP 2 936 439 concerning App_35377/2025 (Request for a new time period regime; new service dates) CLAIMANT Eyesmatch Ltd. c/o Hermes Corporate Service (BVI) Ltd., 6th Floor, Waters Edge, Building 1, Wickham’s Cay 2, Road Town, Tortola - VG1110 - Tortola - VG Represented by Holger Stratmann DEFENDANTS: 1) Samsung Electronics GmbH (Applicant) Frankfurter Straße 2 - 65760 - Eschborn - DE Represented by Christian Lederer 2) Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 129 Samseong-ro, Yeongtong-gu Suwon - 16677 - Gyeonggi - KP 3) Samsung Electronics France SAS (Applicant) 6, rue Fructidor - 93 400 - Saint- Ouen - FR Represented by Christian Lederer 4) Samsung Electronics Italia S.p.A. (Applicant) Via Mike Bongiorno n. 9 - 20124 - Milano - IT Represented by Christian Lederer 2 5) Samsung Electronics Nordic AB (Applicant) Torshamnsgatan 48 - 164 40 - Kista - SE Represented by Christian Lederer PATENT AT ISSUE: European patent EP 2 936 439 PANEL/DIVISION: Panel of the Local Division in Mannheim DECIDING JUDGES: This order was issued by the legally qualified judge Böttcher acting as judge-rapporteur. LANGUAGE OF THE PROCEEDINGS: English SUBJECT OF THE PROCEEDINGS: Patent infringement action – Request for a new time period regime; service date BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE FACTS: After service on Defendant 1, 3 to 5 has been effected in the period between 2 and 5 August 2025, all parties to the proceedings have agreed that service on all Defendants shall be deemed to have been effected uniformly on 1 September 2025, whereby the UPC representatives of Defendant 1, 3 to 5 also accepting service for Defendant 2 in return, without service abroad being necessary. The agreement also includes an agreement to extend the time period for Claimant’s reply and its defence to a possible counterclaim for revocation. Defendants 1, 3 to 5 request that I. a uniform (fictitious) date of service is set for all Defendants for September 1, 2025; II. the deadline for filing the Statement of Defense and the Counterclaim for Revocation is thereby set for December 1, 2025 for all Defendants; III. the deadline for filing the Preliminary Objection is thereby set for October 1, 2025, for all Defendants; IV. the respective Claimant`s deadline for filing the Reply to the Statement of Defense and the Defense to the Counterclaim for Revocation is extended by additional two weeks, namely until February 16, 2025. 3 REASON FOR THE ORDER: According to the established case law of the LD Mannheim, agreements between the parties that aim at facilitating the service on Defendants abroad and/or harmonizing the time period regime are accepted on a regular basis (cf., e.g., order of 30 April 2025, UPC_CFI_197/2025; order of 9 May 2025, UPC_CFI_189/2025; order of 16 April 2025, UPC_CFI_86/2025). In this context, an extension of a time period is regularly justified by the consent of all parties and the purpose of avoiding service abroad and/or of establishing a uniform time period regime. In the case of service abroad and without a uniform time period regime, different time periods would apply in individual procedural relationships throughout the entire written procedure. This would make the management of proceedings more difficult for all parties involved. Avoiding service abroad also speeds up the overall proceedings. These measures are therefore in line with the principles of a swift and efficient procedure. For these reasons, the request at hand is essentially granted. Since the parties are free to mutually agree on a service date for Defendants, on which the service of the statement of claim has not been effected yet, the services date for Defendant 2 is set for 1 September 2025. For Defendants 1, 3 to 5, the time periods for filing a preliminary objection are extended until 1 October 2025 and for filing the statement of defence until 1 December 2025. Since the time period for filing a counterclaim for revocation is based on and automatically in line with the time period for filing the statement of defence, no separate extension of the time period for filing a counterclaim for revocation is necessary. Since extending the time periods has the same effect as setting a fictitious date of service for the Defendants 1, 3 to 5, it is not necessary to formally reject the request in this respect. Finally, the time period for filing the reply in the infringement proceedings and the defence to a possible counterclaim for revocation is extended until 16 February 2026. The moderate extension is justified by the consent of the parties and as part of the overall agreement between the parties which facilitates the handling of the proceedings by harmonizing the time periods and avoiding service abroad on Defendant 2. ORDER: 1. For Defendant 2, on which the service of the statement of claim has not been effected yet, the service date is set at 1 September 2025. For Defendant 2, the time period for filing a preliminary objection is therefore 1 October 2025 and the time period for filing the state- ment of defence is 1 December 2025. 2. For Defendants 1, 3 to 5, the time periods for filing a preliminary objection are extended until 1 October 2025 and the time periods for filing the statement of defence are extended until 1 December 2025. 3. For Claimant, the time period for filing the reply in the infringement proceedings and the defence to a possible counterclaim for revocation is extended until 16 February 2026. 4 ORDER DETAILS Order no. ORD_35458/2025 in ACTION NUMBER: ACT_24439/2025 UPC number: UPC_CFI_453/2025 Action type: Infringement Action Related proceeding no. Application No.: 35377/2025 Application Type: Generic procedural Application Issued in Mannheim on 27 August 2025 NAME AND SIGNATURE Böttcher Judge-rapporteur
Key Holdings
- Agreement on service acceptance and deadline extension approved.
- Avoids delays regarding Italian and Korean defendants.
- Extension deemed acceptable to facilitate case management.
Tags
- Added Matter
- Case Management
- Service