After the oral proceedings, the judges may issue a decision on the merits.
Content of the Decision
This decision on the merits may include:
- permanent injunctions (Rule 118.1 of the Rules of Procedure and Article 63 of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court);
- corrective measures (Rule 118.1 of the Rules of Procedure and Article 64 of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court), such as:
- a recall of products;
- destruction;
- etc.
- disclosure of information (Rule 118.1 of the Rules of Procedure and Article 67 of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court) concerning the origin of the products or the scope of the infringement;
- award of damages (Rule 118.1 of the Rules of Procedure and Article 68 of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court);
- publication of the decision (Rule 118.1 of the Rules of Procedure and Article 80 of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court).
Although a separate procedure typically exists for the determination of costs (Rules 150 et seq. of the Rules of Procedure), the court may request the parties in advance to specify the costs they seek to recover (Rule 118.5 of the Rules of Procedure).
For further details on damages, corrective measures, and injunctions, please refer to the article on Injunctions and Corrective Measures.
Further Details
Decision on Infringement
The decision (i.e., concerning infringement) may be conditional upon the patent not being found invalid (Rule 118.2(a) of the Rules of Procedure).
Decision on Invalidity
In invalidity actions, the judges may issue decisions on total or partial invalidity (Rule 118.3 of the Rules of Procedure and Article 65 of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court).
In particular, if the grounds for invalidity affect the patent only partially, the claims must be amended to allow for partial revocation. This is significant because it differs from the EPO’s approach.