When an injunction application is served: what to do first
Answer: Once an injunction application is served, a clock starts immediately, whether or not you have read the papers yet. Open the order first, not the covering letter. It states the deadline, the hearing date, and what has already been granted provisionally. Confirm service was valid, stop any restrained activity, and instruct counsel before you respond to anything from the other side.
What the application rests on
Interim relief in a patent dispute is decided by whichever forum has jurisdiction over the patent in suit, under that forum's own procedural rules. Where the patent is a unitary patent, the forum and the procedure for interim measures are set out in the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court. That patent exists because of Regulation (EU) No 1257/2012, and the language regime under which it was granted follows Council Regulation (EU) No 1260/2012.
Where the patent is a national bundle patent, outside the unitary system, the procedure follows the national court seised of the case. This page does not set out that national procedure; the registry consulted here does not cover it.
What changes the moment the application is served
Service starts deadlines that do not pause while advice is being arranged. An interim order can restrain specific acts — manufacturing, marketing, importing — before the substantive dispute is decided at all. Missing the deadline stated in the order does not suspend the restriction; it removes the chance to be heard on it before the hearing. Continuing a restrained activity after valid service, even briefly, is treated as a separate act, with its own consequences.
What to do first
- Read the order attached to the application in full, not only the summary in the covering letter.
- Note the deadline and the hearing date stated in the order, and calendar both the same day.
- Stop the activity the order restrains, even before you dispute whether the order was justified.
- Preserve every document and message relevant to the patent and to the accused activity.
- Instruct counsel authorised to appear before the forum named in the order.
- Confirm whether the patent in suit is a unitary patent or a national bundle patent — this decides which forum and which procedure apply next.
Who decides, and on what basis
| Patent in suit | Forum | Governing framework |
|---|---|---|
| Unitary patent | Unified Patent Court | Agreement on a Unified Patent Court |
| National bundle patent | National court seised of the matter | Not covered by the registry consulted for this page |
At this stage the standard applied is procedural, not the full trial standard. The forum weighs urgency and the apparent strength of the claim on the material filed so far, not on the complete evidentiary record that a trial would require.
Two situations that change the answer
If the application follows an acquisition, and the real dispute is about who owns the invention rather than whether it is infringed, ownership is examined before infringement is reached at all — see When an acquired team brings prior work and its effect on ownership is examined for that situation specifically.
If the right at issue is tokenised or contractually fragmented rather than a registered patent, the interim question is not the same one — see When the issuer loses control of the contract step-by-step response is set out separately for that case.
If the applicant is domiciled outside the EU, service itself can be contested on separate grounds; that question is worked through before the deadline is treated as settled.
What this page does not cover
This page does not calculate what responding will cost, and it does not estimate the outcome of the application. Cost depends on how many registers and jurisdictions are involved, whether an opponent is already active, and whether a deadline is already running — factors a scoping conversation establishes, not this page. Where the applicant is a Finnish counterparty, background drawn from public filings can help before that first call: Counterparty in Finland explained.
Related publications
A comparable first-response sequence applies where the source of urgency is a licence rather than an injunction: When a licensee stops paying and keeps selling in a related patent-licensing situation, where the same first hours matter just as much.
Verified
Checked against the sources below on 20 March 2025: Regulation (EU) No 1257/2012, in force from 1 June 2023; Council Regulation (EU) No 1260/2012, in force from 1 June 2023; Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, in force from 1 June 2023. For how response times are tracked across matters generally, see Delivery statistics, published automatically and its limits are published separately.
A first response, once instructed, arrives within minutes during business hours. A scoped estimate for handling the application follows within one business day, once the number of registers, jurisdictions, and any already-running deadline are established.
Frequently asked questions
What is the first step when an injunction application is served?
Read the order itself, not only the covering letter, and note the deadline and hearing date it states. Confirm service was valid before responding to anything else.
Which deadline is already running?
The deadline set out in the order that accompanied the application. It runs from the moment of valid service, not from the date you read the papers or instruct counsel.
Who decides, and on what evidence?
Where the patent is unitary, the Unified Patent Court decides under the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, weighing urgency and the apparent strength of the claim on the material filed so far, not the complete trial record.