Traditionally, before the Paris first instance court (tribunal judiciaire), the validity and infringement of a patent and, more rarely, the compensation for damages are addressed, pleaded and judged together. However, sometimes, the particular context of a dispute leads the judge in charge of case preparation to dissociate these issues, in order to rule on them one after the other.

The case pending before the Paris first instance court between Lufthansa Technik (“Lufthansa”) and Thales Avionics, Astronics Advanced Electronic Systems and Panasonic Avionics (“Thales Avionics et.al”) is a recent example of a sequenced procedure, i.e. a procedure arranged in several stages in the interest of the proper administration of justice.

The entire summary can be read here.
The judgment (in French) can be read here.

Judgment and summary provided by: Sabine Agé, Caroline Levesque and Anaïs Pallut, HOYNG ROKH MONEGIER VERON