Syngenta Limited v. Sumi Agro Limited & Sumi Agro Europe Limited – Court of First Instance – Munich (DE) Local Division, 14 April 2025, Case no. UPC_CFI_566/2024, UPC_CFI_39/2025
The Munich Local Division (LD) allowed Syngenta’s request to amend its claim to extend to the Czech Republic, Poland and the UK following the CJEU’s decision in BSH Hausgeräte v Electrolux (Case C-339/22) (“BSH Hausgeräte”).
Background
This relates to the dispute between the parties in respect of Sumi Agro’s alleged infringement of Syngenta’s European patent EP 2 152 073 (“EP ‘073”) concerning a herbicidal composition. On 27 August 2024, the Munich LD granted a preliminary injunction (“PI”) in favour of Syngenta. Syngenta now sought to amend its claim in the parallel proceedings on the merits, pursuant to Rule 263 RoP, following the CJEU’s decision in BSH Hausgeräte, to extend to the Czech Republic (an EU member state which has signed but not ratified the UPCA), Poland (a non-UPC EU member state) and the UK (a third country).
Order
The Munich Local Division (LD) allowed Syngenta’s request to amend its claim.
The court found that the amendment in question could not have been made earlier with reasonable diligence (Rule 263.2.a RoP). Even if not impossible, Syngenta could not have been expected to include non-UPC countries in the original claim (following GAT v Luk (Case C-4/03) which was the CJEU case law in place at the time, prior to BSH Hausgeräte). The court also found that Syngenta was not obliged to include those countries in the original claim on the basis of the opinions of AG Emiliou in BSH Hausgeräte because they were non-binding on the CJEU (UPC CoA’s decision in TGI Sport Suomi Oy (previously Supponer) v AIM Sport followed).
Sumi Agro requested a two-month extension of the existing schedule for exchanges of pleadings. While the court said that the amendment will not unduly hinder Sumi Agro, the extension was granted but the dates for the interim conference and oral hearing would remain the same.
The BSH Hausgeräte ruling is now – unsurprisingly – influencing and being applied in decisions more regularly. An increasing number of requests to expand the scope of claims over the coming weeks and months is now likely.
The order can be found here.
