Mannheim Regional Court: fewer cases, fewer chambers

In future, only the 2nd and 14th Civil Chambers will hear patent cases in Mannheim, according to the current business distribution plan of the Mannheim Regional Court. Accordingly, the court has dissolved the traditional 7th Civil Chamber. The cases that it has not yet heard or decided have now been assigned to the other two patent chambers. The business distribution plan provides a detailed breakdown of these cases.

Böttcher and Kircher head patent chambers

Now the 14th Civil Chamber will hear the majority of patent cases in Mannheim. This is because the first five cases in a year will initially go to the 2nd Civil Chamber, but the following six cases will then go to the 14th Civil Chamber. The court will distribute all subsequent cases according to the same rotation.

The 14th Civil Chamber is also responsible for antitrust cases, which is headed by presiding judge Dirk Böttcher. A year ago, as the third chamber at the Mannheim Regional Court, it also received jurisdiction for patent proceedings. Thomas Schmidt, who most recently headed the 7th Civil Chamber, is now Böttcher’s deputy at the 14th Civil Chamber.

The unequal distribution between the two chambers is probably also because the presiding judge of the 2nd Civil Chamber, Holger Kircher, is also a UPC judge. As a member of the 2nd Civil Chamber, Böttcher is also experienced in patent litigation.

Mannheim Regional Court sees fewer cases

Court spokesperson Joachim Bock told JUVE Patent, “The intention of the restructuring is to have two chambers again in the future – also due to the lower number of incoming cases – which, as in the case of the 2nd Civil Chamber, will deal exclusively with patent cases and, as in the case of the 14th Civil Chamber, with patent and antitrust cases.”

In 2022, the court saw 133 newly filed cases. According to a JUVE Patent investigation, the 2nd and 7th Civil Chambers were 6.3% behind the previous year which saw 142 new cases. However, the 2022 figures remain above the 2020 pandemic year, which saw 128.

In Mannheim, the number of new cases was significantly higher in 2017 with 215 new cases. The number then continued to fall in the following years. In 2023, the court recorded only 70 new cases.

Since June 2023, the Unified Patent Court under Peter Tochtermann and Holger Kircher has also presented the Mannheim court with some competition. It currently has eleven pending infringement actions.

Recently, the Regional Court Munich also reacted to declining case numbers. Since 2023, the 44th Civil Chamber has no longer received new cases and only processes old patent actions. Instead, the court has only assigned new patent actions to the 7th and 21st Civil Chambers.

End of a long tradition

With the dissolution of Mannheim Regional Court’s 7th Civil Chamber, one of Germany’s most traditional patent chambers is closing its doors.

Andreas Voß headed the chamber for many years, before moving to the Higher Regional Court in 2015. Under his leadership, the chamber decided numerous proceedings relating to mobile communications in the ‘smartphone wars’ between Apple, Samsung, Google and Microsoft from 2010 onwards. However, one of the best-known disputes was IPCom’s lawsuits against Nokia, in which the NPE allegedly claimed up to €12 billion in damages from the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer in the 2000s.

Most recently, the chamber attracted attention through its involvement in the so-called connected cars battles between Broadcom and the VW Group, and Nokia and Daimler.

Andreas Voß’s move to the Higher Regional Court in 2015 preceded a turbulent phase for the chamber, as his successor died suddenly. Patricia Rombach, who is now also a UPC judge, took over the chamber, but moved to an antitrust chamber of the court just two years later. With Peter Tochtermann, the 7th Civil Chamber returned to calmer waters in 2018. Last year, however, Tochtermann also moved to the UPC as a full-time judge.