A 14 July analysis by Lewis Silkin offers one of the clearest practical summaries to date of the Unified Patent Court’s fee framework. The basic rule is that the unsuccessful party bears the other side’s reasonable and proportionate costs, although the Court may adjust the allocation on fairness grounds. Fixed court fees are €14,600 for infringement actions, €26,500 for revocation actions and €300 for protective letters, with additional value-based fees once the amount in dispute exceeds €500,000. Even where several patentees or defendants are involved, the fixed fee is generally charged only once, while the fee for a counterclaim for revocation is capped at €26,500.
The practical significance lies in case planning rather than fee recovery alone. In Edwards v Meril, the UPC confirmed that it will not award interest on recoverable costs, so parties cannot assume that the financing burden of long-running proceedings will be shifted to the opponent. Businesses should therefore model fixed fees, value-based fees, recoverability caps and the Court’s discretion together when deciding whether to bring an infringement action, file a revocation counterclaim or lodge a protective letter. A multi-party structure may not multiply the fixed fee, but it can still materially increase legal, expert and evidence-management costs.
