UPC: Costs And Fees

Following a lengthy consultation, the Preparatory Committee for the Unified Patent Court (UPC) published its Rules on Court fees and recoverable costs (the Rules) along with Guidelines for the determination of value-based Court fees and the ceiling of recoverable costs of the successful party (the Guidance).

Key points

• No fees will be charged to opt-out European patents from the jurisdiction of the UPC, nor to withdraw an opt-out.
• Infringement actions and declarations of non-infringement will have fixed court fees of 11,000 euros, with revocation actions set at 20,000 euros.
• Additional value-based court fees will be (self) assessed by the claimant (primarily on a licence fee basis) and paid at the same time as the fixed fee. If there is any disagreement over the value assessment this will be resolved at the interim conference. The Guidance provides general principles and specific suggestions for such assessment for particular actions. The value-based