The Unified Patent Court (UPC) has been a game-changer for patent litigation in Europe since its launch last June, offering plaintiffs the prospect of damages and injunctive relief spanning up to 17 EU countries. However, the UPC’s approach to certain issues has only recently started to solidify—including its application of a rule allowing the court to require plaintiffs to pay a security to cover the defendant’s costs in order to keep litigating. Earlier this year, two UPC Local Divisions reached different conclusions in weighing whether to impose securities against two separate US-based NPEs: The Munich Local Division (“Munich LD”) denied a defendant’s request for a security against one plaintiff, while the Paris Local Division (“Paris LD”) granted a request against another—the latter also rejecting a US insurance policy offered by the plaintiff as a guarantee. Now, the Court of Appeal has reviewed those two decisions, in both instances ruling against the plaintiff-appellants.

Inventor-controlled ICPillar LLC has filed its first litigation, suing ARM (1:23-cv-00282) in the Western District of Texas. The company is alleged to infringe two patents generally related to designing an integrating circuit that controls an electronic device through the provision of certain integrated circuit design tools, including “recent and current versions of Arm’s IP Configuration Tools, Arm Socrates IP Tools, and Arm Development Studio (including what is currently called the Pack Manager)”.