IP Quick Tip: Cost reimbursement at the UPC where multiple parties are involved

Show notes

To sign up for our newsletter, please visit: https://www.bardehle.com/en/newsletter-subscription?email=

At the UPC, the successful party can request reimbursement of their actual costs from the unsuccessful party up to a ceiling that depends on the value of the proceedings.

The UPC Regulations do not specify, however, how cost reimbursement claims are determined and enforced if multiple parties are involved on either side. In a scenario with multiple defendants, this may result in the plaintiff claiming full cost reimbursement from one defendant, and this defendant not being able to at least partially recover the reimbursement paid by them from the other defendants. Statutory law such as the German provisions on settlement between joint and several debtors might not resolve this, depending on the nationalities of the defendants.

Multiple parties on one side of a UPC action might therefore want to consider concluding an agreement on liability for and entitlement to cost reimbursement claims.