Costs and security for costs: stages and deadlines
A request for security for costs asks the court to protect a defendant against the risk of an unpaid costs order before the substance of a patent dispute is examined. The court reviews the claimant's domicile and assets, sets an amount and a payment window, and can stay the case if the deadline passes unpaid.
How the mechanism works
Security for costs is a procedural safeguard, not a ruling on the patent itself. The court asks whether the claimant could pay the defendant's costs if the claim later fails. The assessment usually turns on where the claimant is based and what assets sit inside the jurisdiction, not on the strength of the infringement or validity argument.
Ownership complications add another layer. Where a patent changed hands shortly before the claim was filed, or a founder or co-inventor disputes an earlier assignment, the court may need to confirm who the real claimant is before it can assess assets at all. A comparable pattern in a different sector is set out in Games and interactive entertainment a founder leaves with the note, where the register itself becomes the first document under review.
The mechanism runs on two tracks that meet only at judgment. One track handles security while the dispute is live. The other handles final costs once the outcome is known. Confusing the two is the most common planning mistake we see.
Stages at a glance
| Stage | Trigger | Who acts | Typical outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Request filed | Defendant raises the point, usually with its first response | Defendant | Court decides whether to open the question |
| Assessment | Court reviews the claimant's domicile and assets | Court | Security ordered, reduced or refused |
| Order and deadline | Security is ordered | Court | Amount and payment window are fixed |
| Compliance | Deadline running | Claimant | Deposit, bond or bank guarantee lodged |
| Non-compliance | Deadline passes unpaid | Court | Claim stayed or struck out |
| Final costs order | Judgment issued | Court | Losing party covers its own costs and part of the other side's |
What changes for your timeline
A security request can pause a patent dispute before either side reaches the merits. That is deliberate. The court wants the payment question settled early, so the case does not run for years on a claim that ends with an uncollectable costs order. For a claimant this means budgeting for the security stage before budgeting for expert reports or hearings. For a defendant it means the request itself, filed at the right moment, is a genuine lever, not a formality.
The compliance window is usually short and firm. Courts rarely extend it without a concrete reason, because the whole point of the order is to remove doubt quickly rather than add another round of argument.
What to do now
- Claimant's counsel checks the claimant's own domicile and local assets before filing, so the risk of a security request is known in advance.
- Defendant's counsel files the request for security early, ideally with the first substantive response, rather than waiting for a later stage.
- Claimant's counsel prepares proof of assets, or arranges a bank guarantee in principle, before the order is even issued.
- Both sides calendar the deadline set by the court order the day it is issued, not the day it is received internally.
- If security is ordered, the claimant instructs a bank or insurer to issue the guarantee within the set window and confirms receipt with the registry.
- Either side tracks whether the value in dispute changes during the case, since a change can justify revisiting the amount.
Who decides and by when
The court or panel already seized of the underlying patent dispute decides the request for security. It is not referred to a separate body. The deadline for payment is fixed inside the order itself; there is no single published statutory figure, because the window is set case by case against the value in dispute and the claimant's circumstances.
The final costs order is decided by the same forum at judgment, once the outcome of the substantive dispute is known.
Common scenarios
If the claimant is based outside the EU or EEA and holds no assets inside the jurisdiction, security is likely and often ordered at an early stage of the case.
If the claimant already holds an insurance policy or a standing guarantee covering adverse costs, the court may reduce the amount ordered or waive the request entirely.
If the defendant delays the request until late in the proceedings, the court may refuse it on the ground that it came too late to serve its purpose.
What this page does not cover
This page maps stages, deadlines and the decision-making forum. It does not state a specific sum, a fixed scale, or a jurisdiction-specific tariff for security or for the final costs order. Those figures depend on the forum, the value in dispute and the applicable national scale, and they change over time. This page also does not verify a specific counterparty's assets or domicile. Where a live dispute needs that kind of check, a structured lookup such as Counterparty in Norway in practice shows what can be established for a given counterparty and what cannot.
Related reading
A related procedure — pausing a patent dispute while a parallel validity challenge runs — follows a similar pattern of stages and deadlines. It is covered in Stay pending validity step by step.
Verified
This page was last checked in June 2025 against current court practice on security for costs and cost orders in patent disputes. It draws on procedural rules published by the deciding forum and on our own file handling. No article numbers appear here, because the national implementing rules that would carry them sit outside the scope of this note. How we handle tracking data on this site is set out separately in Cookies and what is switched off by default and.
Next steps
If a licence or transfer sits behind the dispute rather than a straightforward infringement claim, cost exposure can look different. See When the contract has no upgrade path in detail for a comparable situation in digital assets.
If the trigger is a newly filed mark rather than a patent, the same early-stage logic applies in a different register. What to do first in this situation sets out the opening moves.
Where the dispute turns on rights that were never properly owned by the party that sold or licensed them, cost exposure is assessed on a different basis again, as set out in When the deal transfers rights that were never owned.
Contact our team for a first assessment of your own timeline and cost exposure.
FAQ
How long does costs and security for costs take in practice?
The security stage itself is usually resolved in weeks, since the point is to settle the payment question before the case moves on. The final costs order follows judgment and has no separate timeline of its own; it is decided as part of the same decision that ends the dispute.
Which documents are needed to start?
A request for security needs the application itself, an estimate of the defendant's likely costs, and evidence touching the claimant's domicile and assets. Once security is ordered, the claimant needs proof of the deposit, bond or bank guarantee that satisfies the order.
What happens if the other side does not respond?
If a claimant does not respond to the order or does not pay within the deadline, the court can stay the claim or strike it out. If a defendant does not raise the point in time, the court can treat the request as made too late and refuse it on that ground alone.