{"id":11363,"date":"2025-11-07T17:34:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T16:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bdl-ip.com\/?p=11363"},"modified":"2025-11-07T17:34:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T16:34:17","slug":"upc-position-of-the-coa-regarding-liability-of-managing-directors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bdl-ip.com\/zh-hans\/upc-position-of-the-coa-regarding-liability-of-managing-directors\/","title":{"rendered":"UPC \u2013 Position of the CoA regarding liability of Managing Directors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Important Decision by the Court of Appeal of the Unified Patent Court<\/a><\/span> on the Liability of company managing directors for patent infringement committed by their companies:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Ruling on an appeal against a decision on the merits of the Munich Local Division of the Unified Patent Court (hereinafter, the \u201cUPC<\/strong>\u201d), which had held managing directors personally liable alongside their companies found guilty of infringement (Munich LD, 13 September 2024, Koninklijke Philips N.V. c. Belkin GmbH, UPC_CFI_390\/2023, ACT_583273\/2023, ORD_598464\/2023<\/a><\/span>), the decision of the UPC\u2019s Court of Appeal was particularly awaited.<\/p>\n

In the first instance, the Munich Local Division had found the managing directors liable as \u201cintermediaries<\/em>\u201d to the infringement and had ordered injunctive relief against them.<\/p>\n

However, after reasserting that a managing director cannot be regarded as an \u201cintermediary\u2019\u201d (see, to that effect, CoA, 29 October 2024, UPC_CoA_549\/2024, APL_51838\/2024, App_53031\/2024<\/a><\/span>), the Court of Appeal confirmed that a director may nonetheless be personally recognized as an \u201cinfringer<\/em>\u201d because of infringing acts committed by the company.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Court of Appeal clarified that the mere position of managing director does not automatically imply personal liability and that it is necessary to establish acts of infringement committed by the managing director in the capacity of an \u201cinstigator, accomplice or accessory<\/em>\u201d going beyond the general management, control and organizational duties.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In view of the provisions of certain national laws governing the regime of liability (for example, under French law, the requirement of a \u201cfault separable from the duties<\/em>\u201d \u2013 Cass. Com., 20 May 2003, No. 99-17.092<\/a><\/span>), as well as the practical difficulties in assessing infringement and patent validity, particularly in complex technological sectors, the Court of Appeal held that a managing director\u2019s liability can only be established where acts exceeding his\/her normal duties have been committed \u2013 for example, where the managing director has \u201cdeliberately<\/em>\u201d used the company to commit patent infringements.<\/p>\n

The Court of Appeal also clarified that a managing director\u2019s liability may arise where the managing director knows that the company is infringing a patent and \u2013 although it is possible and reasonable for him to do so \u2013 fails to take action to stop the patent infringement. Such knowledge of the infringing acts not only require that the managing director is aware of the circumstances giving rise to the patent infringement (for example, the sale of products subsequently found to be infringing), but also awareness of their illegality (infringing nature).<\/p>\n

Hence, such knowledge (or absence thereof) could be established on the basis of legal advice \u2013 for example, through a freedom-to-operate opinion. Accordingly, the Court held that a managing director could validly demonstrate the absence of knowledge of the infringement by relying on legal advice until a decision establishing his company\u2019s patent infringement has been issued.<\/p>\n

However, the reasoning of the Court of Appeal may give rise to difficulties where a freedom-to-operate opinion concludes, on the contrary, that there is a certain level of risk of infringement. Nevertheless, proving such knowledge of a managing director will remain quite difficult in practice for third parties.<\/p>\n

In the present case, the Court of Appeal overturned the Local Division\u2019s decision on merits regarding the managing director\u2019s liability due to insufficient evidence of effective knowledge of the infringement.<\/p>\n

* Unified Patent Court (UPC), 03 October 2025, case UPC_CoA_534\/2024, UPC_CoA_19\/2025, UPC_CoA_683\/2024, Koninklijke Philips N.V. v. Belkin GmbH<\/p>\n

Gaston VEDEL<\/span><\/a>, Attorney-at-law (Avocat), Partner of BDL-IP LEGAL
\nSabine BORNY<\/span><\/a>, Attorney-at-law (Avocate) of BDL-IP LEGAL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Important Decision by the Court of Appeal of the Unifie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[315],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ip-news-zh-hans"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUPC \u2013 Position of the CoA regarding liability of Managing Directors - BDL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bdl-ip.com\/zh-hans\/upc-position-of-the-coa-regarding-liability-of-managing-directors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"zh_CN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UPC \u2013 Position of the CoA regarding liability of Managing Directors - BDL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Important Decision by the Court of Appeal of the Unifie […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bdl-ip.com\/zh-hans\/upc-position-of-the-coa-regarding-liability-of-managing-directors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BDL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-07T16:34:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bdl-ip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/bg-hero10.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1366\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"adm-bdl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"\u4f5c\u8005\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"adm-bdl\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"\u9884\u8ba1\u9605\u8bfb\u65f6\u95f4\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 \u5206\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bdl-ip.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/upc-position-of-the-coa-regarding-liability-of-managing-directors\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bdl-ip.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/upc-position-of-the-coa-regarding-liability-of-managing-directors\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"adm-bdl\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bdl-ip.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/49791463b136dcd0ba2792015bd1d159\"},\"headline\":\"UPC \u2013 Position of the CoA regarding liability of Managing Directors\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-07T16:34:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bdl-ip.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/upc-position-of-the-coa-regarding-liability-of-managing-directors\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":573,\"articleSection\":[\"IP NEWS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"zh-Hans\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bdl-ip.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/upc-position-of-the-coa-regarding-liability-of-managing-directors\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.bdl-ip.com\\\/zh-hans\\\/upc-position-of-the-coa-regarding-liability-of-managing-directors\\\/\",\"name\":\"UPC \u2013 Position of the CoA regarding liability of Managing Directors - 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