High Point SARL v. KPN B.V., Supreme Court of the Netherlands, 15 September 2017, Case no. ECLI:NL:HR:2017:2363

High Point holds EP 772 that relates to a ‘Wireless access telephone-to-telephone network interface architecture’. The Court of Appeal decided earlier that the claim limitations submitted by High Point per deed after having submitted its statement of appeal are not admissible based on the so-called ‘two statements rule’ (twee-conclusie-regel). This Dutch procedural rule (in short) states that in principle a party can not change its claim on appeal after having filed the statement of appeal or, respectively, the statement of defence on appeal.

The Supreme Court now confirms the Court of Appeal ruling. According to the Supreme Court the right to change claims as laid down in Art. 138(3) EPC does stand in the way of procedural rules that serve to concentrate the debate and expedite decision making.

A copy of the Supreme Court decision (in Dutch) can be read here.