MANNHEIM LOCAL DIVISION Law and Practice Contributed by: Tobias J Hessel and Leonie Jüngels, Clifford Chance
documents explicitly intended for disclosure would in fact be released. As a result, the Mannheim Local Division decid - ed to grant the requesting firm access to select documents – specifically, the statement of claim, the statement of defence and the counterclaim – in redacted form. The court found that such access was legitimate, particularly in light of public interest and for the purpose of academic publication. This decision reflects, on the one hand, the tech - nical challenges faced by the UPC’s CMS dur - ing its early operational phase, and on the other hand, the diligence with which the Mannheim Local Division handles third-party requests in order to safeguard the parties’ confidentiality interests. 4.4 Pending Procedural Issues Pending procedural issues are described in 3.3. Pending Cases and elsewhere throughout the chapter. 4.5 Influence of Prior Local Practice on Procedural Issues This topic is described in 3.5 Influence of Prior Local Practice on Substantive Legal Decisions . 4.6 Court of Appeal Procedural Jurisprudence The UPC reports on the decisions of the Court of Appeal in an annual report, which is available on the UPC’S website. 5. Economic Issues and Remedies 5.1 Case Value and Court Fees Proceedings before the Mannheim Local Divi - sion of the UPC involve both fixed and value-
based court fees. For a standard infringement action, the fixed fee is EUR11,000. If a coun - terclaim for revocation is filed, an additional EUR20,000 applies. For cases where the value in dispute exceeds EUR500,000, supplemen - tary value-based fees are added, scaling up to EUR325,000 for high-value disputes (eg, SEP/ FRAND cases). In addition to court fees, parties typically incur legal and expert costs. For moderately com - plex cases, total legal expenses range between EUR100,000 and EUR300,000, and can exceed EUR500,000 in high-stakes, multinational pat - ent disputes. Costs for translations and expert evidence may also be significant. The UPC applies a cost reimbursement scheme for the prevailing party, with maximum caps based on the value of the dispute (eg, EUR200,000 for disputes up to EUR2 million, and up to EUR2 million for the highest tiers). Further information can be found on the UPC website – the table of court fees, and the table of upper limits for reimbursable costs based on the value in dispute, can be downloaded there. 5.2 UPC Court Fees Compared to National Courts Although both the Local Division Mannheim and the Regional Court of Mannheim benefit from strong legal expertise, their cost structures differ significantly. In proceedings before the Regional Court of Mannheim, court fees typically range from around EUR3,000 to EUR10,000, depend - ing on the value in dispute. Attorney fees for an average case generally fall between EUR100,000 and EUR250,000, depending on the complex - ity and length of the litigation. It is important to note that, due to Germany’s bifurcation system, infringement and validity are handled separate -
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