Dreyfuss v. Zalando, Vente-privée.com and Roberto Design: tribunal de grande instance de Paris, 30 January 2014, Docket № 12/06599, with thanks to Pierre Véron, Véron & Associés, for sending in the judgment and providing a summary in English

An exhibit in a foreign language can be accepted by a French court without translation if the parties, their counsels and the court understand the language of this document and if there is neither ambiguity nor uncertainty about its meaning

This is a copyright and design judgment, not a patent judgment, but it may influence practice of patent litigation in France.

The tribunal de grande instance de Paris, the court having jurisdiction for the whole of France for patent matters, has decided on 30 January 2014 that it may now accept exhibits not written in French language if the parties, their counsels and the court understand the language of these exhibits.To reach this conclusion, the tribunal carefully analysed the ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts signed by Francis 1st of France in August 1539, which was until now the legal basis quoted by the French courts to refuse documents not written in French language. No doubt that this is the most antique legal instrument quoted in this blog.

It remains to be seen how this judgment will be applied.The relevant part of the judgment is translated below.

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“Mr Jérôme Dreyfuss and the Dreyfuss companies request that the court disregard two exhibits produced by Roberto Design and written in German on the basis of the ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts signed by Francis 1st of France in August 1539,

Whereupon:
The relevant articles of the ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, signed by Francis 1st of France in August 1539, read as follows:

Article 110: “We wish and order that judicial acts be drawn up and written so clearly that there be neither ambiguity nor uncertainty nor the possibility of ambiguity or uncertainty, nor grounds for asking for interpretation thereof”.

Article 111: “And because so many things often happened due to poor understanding of Latin words used in decrees, we intend that henceforth all decrees and other proceedings, whether of our sovereign courts or others, subordinate and inferior, or whether in records, surveys, contracts, commissions, awards, wills, and all other acts and deeds of justice or of law, that all such acts are spoken, written, and given to the parties concerned in the French mother tongue, and not otherwise.”

The reading of these articles indicates that it is the use of Latin that was prohibited in court decisions and not the use of other languages and that it suffices for the court to understand the language in which the documents are produced for them to be admissible provided that the judgment itself be entirely written in French.

Article 23 of the French Civil Procedure Code specifies that the judge is not required to have recourse to an interpreter when he or she knows the language in which the parties express themselves.
And article 695 of the same Code includes translation in the court expenses when it is rendered necessary by the law.

Consequently, it should be said that if the parties, their counsels and the court understand the language of a document produced in court and if there is neither ambiguity nor uncertainty about the meaning that is given to them, as the ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts specifies with ever-relevant accuracy, the production of exhibits in a foreign language is possible.”

Read the judgment (in French) here.