UPC-CoA-133/2026; UPC-CoA-134/2026 – Disney v InterDigital
- Court
- Court of Appeal
- Date
- Outcome
- Partially Granted
- Sector
- Electronics/SEP
- Decision Type
- PROCEDURAL
Expert Commentary
Confidentiality Facts 1. Disney filed its Grounds of Appeal on 16 October 2026 and requested confidentiality for certain information in its exhibits. 2. Certain information should be confidential towards the public. 3. Other information should be kept confidential by InterDigital and should not be disclosed or used outside the proceedings. 4. With respect to the information mentioned under 2, the public should be excluded from the oral hearing, and the decision of the Court of Appeal should not be published without redaction. The JR of the Court of Appeal While referring to Strabag v Swarco the Judge-Rapporteur (“JR”) states: a. A request under R. 262.2 RoP does not prevent the other party from disclosing that information. In order to achieve that, you would have to file a request under R. 262.A RoP. b. A request under R. 262A RoP has to be made when the document concerned is filed. If it is filed in first instance without the R. 262A RoP request, you cannot ask for such confidentiality anymore in appeal. c. The JR ordered to upload the Statement of Appeal in a redacted version only with respect to information which has not been disclosed before. Comment 1. It seems that some representatives still do not know their way through the (confusing) confidentiality provisions. 2. I will reiterate how you should (in my opinion!) interpret the provisions: a. If you want to make sure that certain information is treated confidential (even if there is already an agreement in place with the other party that includes a contractual confidentiality clause, or even if you do not mind that the other party receives the information, but you want to preserve confidentiality for the public) you should file the request ex R. 262A RoP when filing the information. b. If it is information that you do not want to give to the other party, but only to a confidentiality club with certain members (for example, employees of the other party not involved in licensing negotiations), you should make that clear. c. The confidentiality arrangement is also automatically valid in appeal and with respect to a request for information from the public. However, if a member of the public asks for information, it is advisable to state that you invoke R. 262.2 RoP with respect to all the information which has a R. 262A RoP status, unless the member of the public restricts its request to the redacted version. A member of the public can challenge the confidentiality under R. 262.3 RoP. d. If on appeal you file new confidential information, you have to ask for R. 262A RoP at the time of filing. e. I think that if you did not ask for R. 262A RoP protection it will be very difficult to claim R. 262.2 RoP protection if a member of the public asks for information, because you will have to make clear that nobody of the adverse party and/or experts were free to disclose that information and that the information has not been disclosed during the oral hearing, etc. f. If you want to make sure that the confidential information is not disclosed during the interim or oral hearing, it is wise to ask that the Court orders such part of the hearing to not be accessible to the public. Be careful - you should also do this if nobody is present, because if the hearing is recorded and the recording is accessible to the public, your information could be made public. It is best to arrange this with the other party and the Court before the hearing so that the Court may schedule a part of the hearing in which the confidential information will remain confidential.
Key Holdings
- A request under Rule 262.2 RoP does not prevent the other party from disclosing information; to bind the opposing party, an application must be made under Rule 262A RoP.
- A request under Rule 262A RoP must be submitted at the time the document concerned is filed; if filed at first instance without a Rule 262A request, confidentiality cannot be requested on appeal.
- A Statement of Appeal may only be uploaded in a redacted version with respect to confidential information that has not previously been disclosed.
- Confidentiality arrangements established under Rule 262A RoP remain valid on appeal, but newly submitted confidential information requires a timely Rule 262A request upon filing.
Tags
- Confidentiality
- Rule 262A RoP
- Rule 262.2 RoP
- Statement of Appeal
- Redaction