In the Court of First Instance the main rule is that the official language or one of the official languages of the Contracting Member State hosting the local division or the official language(s) designated by the Contracting Member States sharing a regional division is the language of the proceedings (Art. 49(1) of the UPC Agreement).

The Contracting Member States may also designate one or more of the official languages of the European Patent Office in addition or instead of their official language as the language of proceedings of their local or regional division (Art. 49(2) of the UPC Agreement).

The Registrar will maintain a list of languages communicated by the Contracting Member States on the language(s) that are available in the local or regional divisions as language of proceedings (Rule 14.3 Rules of Procedure of the UPC).

In the following 3 exceptional situations the language of the patent can become the language of proceedings in proceedings before a local or regional division (Art. 49(3)-(5) UPC Agreement):

•            The parties may agree to use the language of the patent (applies also in the Court of Appeal).

•            With the Agreement of the parties the competent panel of the Court of First Instance may decide to use the language of the patent.

•            At the request of one of the parties and after having heard the other parties and the competent panel the President of the Court of First Instance may decide to use the language of the patent.

The language of proceedings in the central division shall be the language in which the patent was granted (language of the patent) (Article 49(6) of the UPC Agreement).

The language of proceedings before the Court of Appeal shall be the language of proceedings before the Court of First Instance (Article 50 of the UPC Agreement).

Every document will normally need to be translated into the language of proceedings. The party submitting the document will initially bear the costs for the translation. This will however be costs that can be recuperated from the losing party. Any Panel of the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal may, to the extent deemed appropriate, dispense with translation requirements (Article 51(1) of the UPC Agreement).

Under certain circumstances when an infringement action is brought before the central division of the Court of First Instance a defendant having its residence or place of business in a Contracting Member State shall have the right to obtain translations of relevant documents in the language of the Member State of residence or place of business (Article 51(3) of the UPC Agreement). The costs shall be covered by the plaintiff.

When the President of the Court of First Instance (at the request of one of the parties and after having heard the other the other parties and the competent panel) has decided to use the language in which the patent was granted as language of proceedings the President shall also assess the need for specific translation and interpretation arrangements (Article 49(5) of the UPC Agreement).

Yes, if the language of the proceedings before the Court of Appeal is not the language of the proceedings before the Court of First Instance. Then the judge-rapporteur may order the appellant to lodge translations into the language of the proceedings before the Court of Appeal of written pleadings and other documents lodged by the parties as well as decisions or orders of the Court of First Instance (Rule 232 of the Rules of Procedure of the UPC). Generally however, the language of proceedings before the Court of Appeal shall be the language of proceedings before the Court of First Instance (Article 50(1) UPC Agreement).