Procedure in Patent Litigation

  143.—(1) For all actions whereby a claim arising out of one of the legal relationships regulated in this Law is asserted (patent litigation), the civil chambers of the regional courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction without regard to the value in dispute.
(2) The Governments of the Länder shall have power to allot by statutory order patent litigation for the areas of several regional courts to one such court. The Governments of the Länder may tranfer those powers to the provincial administrations of justice.
(3) The parties may also, in cases of patent litigation, be represented before the court by attorney-at-law admitted to practice in the Landgericht before which the action, in the absence of the arrangement under subsection (2), would be heard. The same shall apply in the case of representation before the Court of Appeal1.
(4) Any additional costs incurred by a party arranging to be represented, as provided in subsection (3), by an attorney-at-law not admitted to practice in the court hearing the case shall not be refunded.
(5) Of the costs arising from the collaboration of a patent attorney in the case, fees up to the amount of a full fee according to Section 11 of the Federal Regulations on Fees for Attorneys-at-Law [Bundesgebuhrenordnung fur Rechtsanwälte] shall be refunded, as shall the necessary expenses of the patent attorney.

This subsection, as amended by the Law of September 2, 1994, will read as follows:
“(3) Where an appeal is lodged against a decision of the court in patent litigation, the parties may also be represented before the Court of Appeal by attorneys-at-law admitted to practice before the Provincial High Court that would have heard the appeal in the absence of a ruling under subsection (2).

[Amended by Law of September 2, 1994]”

   It will enter into force on January 1, 2000, for the following Länder of Germany: Baden-W?rttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse , Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein; it will enter into force on January 1, 2005, for the other Länder.  

  144.—(1) If, in a patent case, a party satisfies the court that the awarding of the costs of the case against him according to the full value in dispute would considerably endanger his financial position, the court may, at his request, order that party’s liability to pay court costs to be adjusted in accordance with a portion of the value in dispute that shall be appropriate to his financial position. As a result of the order, the favored party shall likewise be required to pay the fees of his attorney-at-law only in accordance with that portion of the value in dispute. To the extent that the costs of the case are awarded against him or to the extent to which he assumes such costs, he shall be required to refund the court fees paid by the opposing party and the fees of the latter’s attorney-at-law only in accordance with that portion of the value in dispute. To the extent that the extrajudicial costs are ordered to be paid by the opposing party or are assumed by that party, the attorney-at-law of the favored party may recover his fees from the opposing party in accordance with the value in dispute applying to the latter.
(2) The request under subsection (1) may be declared before and recorded at the registrar’s office of the Court. It shall be presented before the substance of the case is heard. Thereafter, it shall only be admissible if the presumed or fixed value in dispute is subsequently increased by the Court. Before the decision on the request is given, the opposing party shall be heard.

  145. Any person who has brought an action pursuant to Section 139 may bring a further action against the defendant on account of the same or a similar act on the basis of another patent only if, through no fault of his own, he was not in a position to assert that patent also in the earlier suit.