Under the headline "LD Munich opens door for file wrapper estoppel at the UPC", patent attorney Dr Florian Henke and attorney-at-law Philipp Rastemborski, LL.M. discuss the decision of the Local Division Munich of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) of 20 December 2023 (UPC_CFI_292/2023). 

In the article, the authors explain and evaluate the Local Division's approach of using the prosecution history of the patent to interpret the claim. In deviation from German case law, the court states that the original or a previous version of the claims of a European patent can be used as an aid for claim interpretation in connection with claim amendments made during the examination procedure. 

In light of the practice of different member states and the EPO, the article points out the potentially significant implications the Local Division’s decision could have for the prosecution and enforcement of European patents, if upheld by the Court of Appeal of the UPC.

GRUR Patent (02/2024) is available in the beck-online database (registration required) and as a print version.