On April 30, the Paris Central Division of the UPC issued a
decision concerning the admissibility of amendments to the patent
in suit in revocation actions, containing interesting commentary on
the contrasting scope of the roles played by the UPC and the
EPO.
In the ongoing revocation action brought by Bitzer Electronics
against Carrier Corporation, an application to amend the patent
proved contentious when Carrier applied to amend claims of the
patent which were not targeted by the revocation action. Bitzer,
whose revocation action requested revocation of the patent at issue
“to the extent of claim 1”, objected that amendments
concerning non-attacked claims must be considered inadmissible.
Carrier argued that, as neither the Unified Patent Court Agreement
nor the Rules of Procedure prescribe how the claims may be amended,
it was reasonable to follow an interpretation in line with EPO
practice.
