RCLIP hosted an evening lecture, featuring Dr. Oliver Schön, Presiding Judge at one of the patent divisions at the Munich Regional Court.

Location: Waseda University Campus Building 3, Room 602

Language: English & Japanese (consecutive translation)

Lecture Overview: In his lecture, Judge Schön explained that the Munich Regional Court continues to rely on the traditional German infringement procedure—fast, front-loaded, and bifurcated—which stands in contrast to the UPC’s more elaborate and slower process. He noted that cross-border enforcement has taken on new significance since the CJEU’s BSH v Electrolux (C-339/22, Feb 2025) decision, which allows national courts to issue pan-EU injunctions even when validity is challenged elsewhere; Munich’s first major post-BSH case, involving a biosimilar covered by EP 2 364 691, applied this framework to grant relief across Germany and 22 other EPC/EU states under the doctrine of equivalents.

In the area of SEP/FRAND disputes, Judge Schön emphasized that while the Munich Regional Court hears a substantial number of such cases, foreign rate-setting decisions (such as those from the UK or China) are not viewed as binding on a party that did not initiate them. He further explained that because interim licences and anti-suit mechanisms increasingly function as de facto global rate-setting tools, the court has responded forcefully, including through Anti-Interim-Licence injunctions, to preserve judicial balance and prevent unilateral forum-driven outcomes.