Ona Patents and Google battle it out at Düsseldorf local division

Today the Düsseldorf local division will hear a dispute between Ona Patents and Google. It is one of the first major mobile phone lawsuits to come before the panel headed by presiding judge Ronny Thomas. A parallel lawsuit against Apple has been withdrawn.

Up to now, the UPC’s Düsseldorf local division has primarily attracted attention with extensive life sciences cases. These include the dispute between 10x Genomics and NanoString over spatial profiling technology, proceedings between Roche Diagnostics and Tandem Diabetes Care over dosing pumps for administering insulin and Novartis’ fight with Celltrion over omalizumab.

Today, the judges panel in Düsseldorf will hear a dispute between Ona Patents and Google concerning a patent relating to location-positioning technology in smartphones involving wireless networks. It is Google’s first dispute at the UPC. The panel consists of legally qualified judges Ronny Thomas, Bérénice Thom, Margot Kokke, and technically qualified judge Gérard Myon.

The dispute revolves around Ona Patents’ EP 2 263 098. The patent, called “Positioning of mobile objects based on mutually transmitted signals”, protects a technology that can be used to locate accessories such as headphones paired with mobile devices, even after the signal has been interrupted. This allows the saving of the device’s last location where the signal was interrupted.

Ona Patents accuses Google of infringing its EP 098 with its tablets and smartphones of the Pixel series and filed an infringement action against the US company at the local division in Düsseldorf on 14 March 2024 (case ID: UPC_CFI_100/2024). Google responded on 22 July with a counterclaim for revocation (case ID: UPC_CFI_411/2024).

Apple case
At the same time, Ona Patents also sued the mobile phone manufacturer Apple, which also responded with a counterclaim for revocation. However, the parties withdrew their respective lawsuits in early September (case IDs: UPC_CFI_99/2024 and UPC_CFI_392/2024).

The UPC documents state “prior to the closure of the written procedure, the claimant withdrew its infringement action by brief dated 1 September 2025. On 3 September 2025, the defendants agreed to the withdrawal of the infringement action”. Sources say the parties settled.

Parallel to the UPC case, damages proceedings are pending at the Regional Court Munich concerning a related patent (case ID: 7 O 3152/24). The patent in suit, EP 1 354 491, has already expired, but nullity proceedings are pending at the German Federal Patent Court, which will be heard early next year (case ID: 4 Ni 25/24).

The action by Ona Patents demonstrates the rising popularity of the UPC for NPEs. Networks System Technology and ICPillar were among the first NPEs to sue at the UPC, both over chip technology. Later, InterDigital and Walt Disney fought at the UPC over video streaming, and then came Atlas Global’s dispute with Vantiva Technologies and TP-link over wi-fi technology.