LD Mannheim provides insights into the distinction between direct and indirect/contributory patent infringement (UPC _CFI_338/2024)

UPC Case Law | 10.10.2025

Court docket: LD Mannheim, decision of 12.09.2025 - CFI 338/2024 [EP 2 223 589]
Parties: bellissa HAAS GmbH v. Windhager GmbH

Contributor: Sebastian Rennebaum

Headnote

1. If the configuration of a patented product according to the invention is specifically designed to allow its components to be easily assembled at the place of use of the product without the addition of further objects, the offering or supplying of all components already constitutes a direct patent infringement within the meaning of Art. 25(a) UPCA. 

2. If a patented product consists of at least two identical, compatible components which, according to their configuration, are intended to be assembled into the patented product without the addition of further objects, the individual sale of such a component generally constitutes a direct patent infringement within the meaning of Art. 25(a) UPCA, if the possibility of assembly is indicated or is otherwise obvious.
   
   

Relevance of the decision

In bellissa HAAS GmbH v. Windhager GmbH the LD Mannheim dealt with the distinction between direct and indirect patent infringement. 
 
The asserted patent claim 1 concerns an “enclosure for beet and grassland areas consisting of at least two sheet metal strips which can be connected to one another at the end face”. Although certain features of claim 1 merely define the suitability of the sheet metal strips for connection, other features of the claim refer to the state in which the strips are connected to each other. The LD Mannheim therefore held that the claim is directed to the enclosure in its assembled state (points 43–45 of the decision). 
 
Nonetheless, for direct and literal infringement of claim 1, the LD Mannheim considered it irrelevant that the enclosure according to the attacked embodiment was only offered and delivered by Defendant in an unassembled state (point 108 of the decision). The court reasoned that the sheet metal strips are specifically designed as a “modular system” to be assembled at the place of use in a straightforward and intended manner, without the addition of further objects. 
 
This reasoning appears generally consistent with case law of the German Federal Court of Justice (FCJ X ZR 95/18 - Schutzverkleidung), according to which the manufacture of the protected product requires the combination of all claim features. However, the manufacture of individual components serving the protected product may also amount to manufacture of the patented product, if the completion of the protected product can be attributed to the party producing the individual components. Upon an overall evaluative consideration, this is the case if completion of the patented product is certain, or at least to be expected with certainty, once the individual components are manufactured. Consequently, a manufacturer of components which can only be assembled in a technically and economically meaningful way into the patented combination directly uses the patent even if it does not itself assemble the individual components, but supplies them to a third party who assembles them into the patented combination. 
 
The Munich District Court I (Urteil vom 13.12.2018 - 7 O 19301/17, BeckRS 2018, 41093) had previously held in another case that direct infringement is nevertheless given if the purchaser must perform only a final manufacturing step, but is directed by the supplier, e.g., by providing instructions, where a missing element is immaterial to the inventive concept and its addition by the purchaser is self-evident. Based on this reasoning, the Munich court found direct infringement in the delivery of a modular set which the purchaser merely had to plug together for patented use; the act of plugging together was equated to the addition of an immaterial missing element. In that case, the court deemed it self-evident that the purchaser would assemble the components, since the individual components were not functional on their own. The Munich court held that, otherwise, nearly any apparatus claim could be circumvented by delivering the apparatus as a “kit of parts”. The reasoning of the LD Mannheim under point 108 the decision reads directly onto this judgement of the Munich District Court I. 
 
The facts in bellissa HAAS GmbH v. Windhager GmbH may differ to the extent that the enclosure marketed by Defendant can also be used individually, and thus are not only technically and economically sensible in the form of the patented combination. However, screenshots of the Defendant’s website presented by Claimant emphasized that the enclosure was “easy to assemble”, “extendable at will”, and allowed for individual design options. This may be understood as an instruction to purchasers to assemble the metal strips in the patented manner. 
 
Under point 105 of the decision, for acknowledgement of direct patent infringement, the LD Mannheim held that the offer of Defendant can be interpreted as an offer related to two or more sheet metal strips. However, under point 122 of the decision, the LD Mannheim even considered the offering and sale of a single individual sheet metal strip of the attacked embodiment to constitute a direct patent infringement under Art. 25(a) UPCA (point 122 of the decision). This appears to go a step further than the aforementioned case law, according to which the delivery of individual components of an apparatus generally gives rise only to indirect infringement, and the manufacture of individual components of a patented product is generally not regarded as direct infringement. It seems that the present case differs from the case law discussed above in that the claimed apparatus consists of two identical, connectable components. Multiple individual sales of a component therefore lead to the supply of all components of the protected apparatus. Under these circumstances, the court deemed it sufficient for direct infringement that an assembly of these components is indicated or is otherwise obvious. 

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