IP-Quick-Tip: Protection of Trade Secrets in UPC Proceedings

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Dive deeper into the Unified Patent Court: https://www.bardehle.com/en/upc-special

The protection of confidential information was the key topic in the last amendments to the Rules of Procedure and as a result there are now a variety of measures to protect confidential information in both the written and the oral part of the proceedings.

For example, a party may request that certain information in the written pleadings or evidence be kept confidential and, if the Court sees specific reasons for such confidentiality, it will exclude these confidential parts from public access.

However, even then, a member of the public may successfully request access to the confidential parts of the court file. In fact, the Rules of Procedure stipulate that, upon the application of a member of the public, which states the grounds upon which confidentiality should not be accepted and the purpose for which the information is needed, the Court shall generally allow access to confidential parts of the court file unless –exceptionally – the party’s interest in confidentiality outweighs those of the applicant.

This is a key difference compared to patent litigation proceedings before the German courts, where even if an applicant has a legitimate interest in file access, no member of the public will be granted access to those parts of a court file, which have been classified as confidential.