Munich drives rising case numbers in Germany

With a total of 627 new cases, the number of newly filed actions for technical property rights at the seven courts focusing on patent disputes was almost 14% higher in 2025 than in the previous year. In 2024, companies had only filed 551 new lawsuits. This means that the figures in Germany rose again for the first time since 2021 after years of decline.

Munich firmly in the lead

This development is being driven primarily by Munich, whose regional court recorded an all-time high with 332 new patent lawsuits. The number of cases at the 7th and 21st Civil Chambers rose by 43.7% compared to the 231 new lawsuits in the previous year. For the first time, Munich broke the threshold of over 300 cases. Only Düsseldorf Regional Court has reached this mark in previous years.

In the same period, the Bavarian capital’s court ruled on 61 lawsuits, including many proceedings concerning SEPs. The first ex parte anti-interim-licence injunction in InterDigital v. Amazon of the 27th Civil Chamber and the decision in Samsung v. ZTE, in which the 7th Civil Chamber set out new approaches to FRAND proceedings, attracted particular attention.

In its recent judgments in Nokia v. Acer and Asus and Wilus v. Asus, the panel around presiding judge Oliver Schön further clarified the rules. What is new above all is that in future the 7th Civil Chamber will take a closer look at the FRAND offer and examine whether it is FRAND-compliant. Judge Schön recently explained this in an interview with JUVE Patent. A further 158 proceedings ended otherwise in 2025, for example by settlement.

Meanwhile, the regional court saw another change of personnel. After patent judge Georg Werner moved to the UPC, Hubertus Schacht tooks over as new presiding judge of the 21st Civil Chamber.

Düsseldorf closes 4c

In 2025, companies filed a total of 190 new actions for technical property rights at the three patent chambers of Düsseldorf Regional Court. This constitues a further decrease of just under 5.5% compared to the 201 actions filed in the previous year. However, it is still much higher than the court’s initial forecasts, which in mid-2024 estimated around 120 newly filed patent actions for the year.

The 4a Civil Chamber counted a total of 72 new patent lawsuits as well as eight lawsuits concerning employee invention rights and four utility model lawsuits. For example, Via LA launched a new series of lawsuits against Amazon. At the same time, the 4a Chamber decided 32 proceedings by judgment and a further 32 lawsuits were withdrawn.

A total of 59 new patent lawsuits landed before the 4b Civil Chamber in 2025, as well as seven proceedings concerning utility models, one dispute concerning employee invention rights and one concerning plant variety protection. In the same period, the chamber settled 35 actions by judgment, while a further 32 actions were withdrawn.

The 4c Civil Chamber recorded only eight new patent actions, as well as one action concerning employee invention rights and two disputes concerning utility models. At the same time, eight of the actions pending there were withdrawn in 2025.

According to the court, the 4a Civil Chamber took over 27 of the proceedings pending at the third Düsseldorf chamber, which had not taken on any new actions since mid-2024 as it no longer had a chair following the increasing migration of established Düsseldorf patent judges to the UPC.

First Sabine Klepsch, long-time presiding judge of 4c, left the national court to work full-time at the UPC in April 2024. This was followed by the move of Daniel Voß, previously presiding judge of 4b chamber, as full-time judge to the UPC. Carsten Haase, who had presided over the 4c chamber since Klepsch transitioned from part-time to full-time at the Hamburg local division, then took over as presiding judge of 4b. Since June 2024, Tilmann Büttner is presiding judge of Civil Chamber 4a. The position became vacant after Bérénice Thom moved to the UPC.

As a spokesperson confirmed at the beginning of 2026, the 4c chamber closed its doors for good and was disolved.

Slight recovery in Mannheim

After a sharp drop in the previous year, the numbers at Mannheim Regional Court recovered slightly in 2025. Nevertheless, they remain at a historically low level. The two patent chambers counted a total of 55 new lawsuits. This constitutes an increase of 12% compared to the 49 cases in 2024. Overall, the number of new lawsuits concerning technical property rights remains at a very low level.

Holger Kircher

There were also recent personnel changes at Mannheim Regional Court due to the UPC. After Dirk Böttcher moved completely to the pan-European court, Thomas Schmidt took over as presiding judge of the 14th Civil Chamber at Mannheim Regional Court. Holger Kircher headed the 2nd Civil Chamber at Mannheim Regional Court while also working part-time for the UPC. In summer 2025, Kircher was then appointed presiding judge of the 6a Civil Senate at the Higher Regional Court Karlsruhe. No presiding judge is listed in the current schedule of responsibilities for the 2nd Civil Chamber of the Regional Court.

As in Mannheim, numbers at Braunschweig Regional Court also increased, but remain in the single-digit range. In percentage terms, the city in Lower Saxony recorded enormous growth of 125%. Looking at the absolute figures, only nine actions for technical property rights were filed last year, compared to four actions in the previous year. In addition, the presiding judge of the 9th Civil Chamber, Jochen Meyer, will retire in the middle of the year. A successor for the chamber responsible for IP disputes has not yet been appointed.

Further drop

The trend towards declining case numbers continued at the other patent locations in Germany. For example, companies only filed 21 new lawsuits at Hamburg Regional Court in 2025. In the previous year, this figure was 27.6% higher with 29 lawsuits filed. At the same time, nine judgments were handed down and 16 further proceedings ended with the withdrawal of the action.

At Frankfurt Regional Court, the number of patent disputes halved in 2025 compared to the previous year. With 15 new lawsuits filed, the court recorded only 50% of the 30 patent lawsuits filed in 2024. In the same period, 10 proceedings ended, five of which by judgment. Nuremberg brings up the rear of the German patent courts with only five new actions. This represents a decrease of 28.5% compared to the seven actions filed in 2024. Only recently, the 19th Chamber of the Regional Court issued an ex parte PI applied for by WobbleWorks ordering Chinese company JER to cease marketing their 3D pens at the toy fair in Nuremberg.

From strength to strength

Meanwhile the UPC is seeing an increasing number of cases, of which a majority is being filed at the local divisions in Germany. According to a case search conducted by JUVE Patent, the UPC received 239 new infringement cases in 2025. In the previous year, there were 155, which is a significant increase of 54.2%. At the end of December 2025, the UPC had therefore received a total of 471 infringement cases since its launch in June 2023. At the end of 2024, the figure was 239.