Case T-784/25: Action brought on 17 November 2025 – Wölken v Commission
Date: 2025-11-17
Institutions: General Court
Subjects: European patent, access to EU information, disclosure of information, harmonisation of standards, patent law, patents licence, proposal (EU)








C_202600345EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2026/345


26.1.2026






Action brought on 17 November 2025 – Wölken v Commission


(Case T-784/25)

(C/2026/345)
Language of the case: German

Parties


Applicant: Tiemo Wölken (Osnabrück, Germany) (represented by C. Zatschler, Senior Counsel, and M. Sánchez Rydelski, lawyer)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:






—


annul the contested decision;










—


order the Commission to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred by the applicant.





Pleas in law and main arguments

The applicant seeks the annulment of the defendant’s implied decision of 6 November 2025, by which the defendant refused the applicant’s request for access to various documents relating to a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on standard essential patents (‘the SEP proposal’), (1) in accordance with Article 8(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001. (2)

In support of the action, the applicant relies on a single plea in law, alleging infringement of the obligation to state reasons laid down in Article 296 TFEU.
The applicant contends that the Commission failed to reply to the applicant’s confirmatory application for access to documents within the prescribed time limit, which is to be considered a negative reply. Such a presumed refusal of access by definition entails a complete lack of reasoning and therefore fails to fulfil the obligation on EU institutions to state reasons under Article 296 TFEU.
In that context, the applicant raises a plea of illegality under Article 277 TFEU against the detailed rules for the application of Regulation No 1049/2001. (3) According to the applicant, the detailed rules for the application of that regulation are unlawful in so far as they lead, in particular, to the automatic deletion of documents covered by its request at issue, as they infringe Articles 41 and 42 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Article 15(3) TFEU and Regulation No 1049/2001. First, the detailed rules for the application of Regulation No 1049/2001 lead to an impermissible restriction of the range of documents that are registered by the defendant and thus taken into account when responding to requests for access to documents and protected from automatic deletion. Second, the automatic deletion provided for in those rules is unlawful per se.


(1)  Proposal of 27 April 2023 for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on standard essential patents and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 (COM (2023) 232 final).

(2)  Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (OJ 2001 L 145, p. 43).

(3)  The detailed rules for the application of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 are set out in the Annex to the Commission’s Rules of Procedure: Commission Decision (EU) 2024/3080 of 4 December 2024 establishing the Rules of Procedure of the Commission (OJ L, 2024/3080).


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2026/345/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)