Judgment of the Court (Tenth Chamber) of 28 April 2022 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesgerichtshof – Germany) – NovaText GmbH v Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
(Case C-531/20) 1
(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Intellectual property rights – Directive 2004/48/EC – Article 3 – General obligation concerning the measures, procedures and remedies necessary to ensure the enforcement of intellectual property rights – Article 14 – Concept of ‘reasonable and proportionate legal costs’ – Consultation of a patent lawyer – Absence of opportunity for the national court to assess the reasonableness and proportionality of the costs to be borne by the unsuccessful party)
Language of the case: German
Referring court
Bundesgerichtshof
Parties to the main proceedings
Applicant: NovaText GmbH
Defendant: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
Operative part of the judgment
Articles 3 and 14 of Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights must be interpreted as precluding national legislation or an interpretation thereof which does not allow the court before which an action is brought under that directive to take due account, in each case brought before it, of its specific characteristics for the purposes of assessing whether the legal costs incurred by the successful party are reasonable and proportionate.
____________
1 OJ C 28, 25.1.2021.