On December 19, 2025, the Düsseldorf Division of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) issued a significant ruling in a patent dispute involving Ecovacs and Roborock. The court determined that its previous unilateral orders—including evidence preservation—issued on September 4 after hearing only Ecovacs' arguments failed to meet procedural requirements and were therefore legally revoked.

Unilateral orders refer to provisional judicial measures directly issued by the court at the request of a rights holder without notifying or hearing the opposing party. Common types include evidence preservation, on-site inspections, and provisional injunctions. In this case, the contested unilateral order was intended to conduct on-site inspections and preserve evidence of relevant products exhibited by Roborock at the IFA trade show in Berlin, Germany.

Under Rule 192(3) of the UPC Procedural Rules, the party applying for ex parte measures bears the obligation to present complete and accurate facts to the court and must not mislead the court through omission or partial statements. Since the court cannot hear the opposing party's views in ex parte proceedings, its discretionary judgment relies heavily on the applicant's unilateral statements. Should such statements be incomplete or misleading on key facts, the relevant order loses its legal basis.

The Düsseldorf Regional Court found that in its September 4 ex parte application, Ecovacs failed to fully and completely disclose facts closely relevant to the case. This deprived the court of a sufficient factual basis when determining whether immediate intervention without notifying the respondent was necessary. Accordingly, the court ruled the ex parte order was unlawfully issued and decided to rescind it retroactively.

Case Background

On August 27, 2025, Ecovacs filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against Roborock Technology and its subsidiaries, alleging infringement of U.S. Patent No. US11,850,753 by its S8 MaxV Ultra robotic vacuum cleaner.

On September 3, 2025, Ecovacs filed a lawsuit against Roborock at the Düsseldorf Local Division of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), alleging infringement of European Patent EP3808512B1 in the European market (Case No.: ACT_36001/2025);

On September 4, 2025, the Düsseldorf Division of the UPC issued an order for evidence preservation and on-site inspection based on Ecovacs' unilateral application (Case No.: UPC_CFI_834/2025);

On October 7, 2025, Roborock obtained a preliminary injunction from Munich Regional Court I prohibiting Ecovacs from selling DEEBOT N20 PLUS/PRO PLUS in Germany, involving patent EP3231340 (Case No.: 21 O 12347/25);

On October 13, 2025, Roborock obtained another preliminary injunction from Munich Regional Court I, restricting sales of multiple DEEBOT N20 series products by Ecovacs in Germany (Case No.: 7 O 12785/25);

On December 19, 2025, the Düsseldorf Regional Division of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) ruled that its unilateral order issued on September 4 was unlawful and formally revoked the order (Case No.: UPC_CFI_834/2025).

Attached: Translation of the ruling