Rule 300 RoP is titled “Calculation of periods” and sets out various provisions relating to how periods are set by the UPC Agreement, the Statute, the Rules or orders of the court are to be dealt with.

Rule 300 of the UPC Rules of Procedure

“Any period of time prescribed by the Agreement, the Statute, these Rules or any order of the Court for the taking of any procedural step shall be laid down in terms of full days, weeks, months or years and shall be reckoned as follows:

(a) computation shall start on the day following the day on which the relevant event occurred; in the case of service of a document, the relevant event shall be the receipt of that document in accordance with Part 5, Chapter 2;

(b) when a period is expressed as one year or a certain number of years, it shall expire in the relevant subsequent year in the month having the same name and on the day having the same number as the month and the day on which the said event occurred. If the relevant subsequent month has no day with the same number, the period shall expire on the last day of that month;

(c) when a period is expressed as one month or a certain number of months, it shall expire in the relevant subsequent month on the day which has the same number as the day on which the said event occurred. If the relevant subsequent month has no day with the same number, the period shall expire on the last day of that month;

(d) when a period is expressed as one week or a certain number of weeks, it shall expire in the relevant subsequent week on the day having the same name as the day on which the said event occurred;
(e) day shall mean a calendar day unless expressed as a working day;

(f) calendar days shall include official holidays of the Contracting Member State in which the division or the seat of the central division or its section concerned or the Court of Appeal is located, Saturdays and Sundays;

(g) working days shall not include official holidays of the Contracting Member State in which the division or the seat of the central division or its section concerned or the Court of Appeal is located, Saturdays and Sundays;

(h) periods shall not be suspended during the judicial vacations.”

Rule 301 of the UPC Rules of Procedure

“1. If a period expires on a Saturday, Sunday or official holiday of the Contracting Member State in which the division or the seat of the central division or its section concerned or the Court of Appeal is located, it shall be extended until the end of the first following working day.”

The particular issue that arose during the hearing related to an earlier order from the court requiring that the defendant (patentee) file a more particular set of auxiliary requests by a specific date, for example, 21 July 2024. The specific date set by the order happened to be a Sunday. In view of this, the defendant considered that Rule 301(1) of the UPC Rules of Procedure applied and filed their response on the following working day.

During the hearing it was argued by the claimant that the specific date set by the order was not a “period” within the meaning of Rule 300 of the Rules of Procedure, since this referred to periods of full days, weeks, months or years, but no reference was made to specific dates. As a result, it was argued that Rule 301(1) of the UPC Rules of Procedure did not apply since it also referred to a “period”, and the specific date set in the order was not a period. According to the claimant, the consequence of this is that the refined set of auxiliary request should be deemed to be not admitted as they were filed after the date specified in the order.

Recommended approach

We have seen specific dates being set by various orders from the court, but previously those dates have been working days and the reliance on Rule 301(1) of the UPC Rules of Procedure has not been required. It will be interesting to see how the court handles this issue.

In the meantime we recommend proceeding with caution and assuming that Rule 301(1) of the UPC Rules of Procedure would not apply to a specific date and ensuring that submissions are filed by the specified date rather than the next working day.

Useful link

Rules of Procedure of the Unified Patent Court (PDF): dycip.com/upc-rulesofprocedure