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11 May 2017

Milan: ready to step up for the UPC

The Unified Patent Court (UPC) will be a supranational court common to EU member states that will have exclusive jurisdiction in matters of validity and infringement of European and unitary patents. It should open its doors in late 2017, unless Brexit causes delays.

It will include a Court of First Instance and a Court of Appeal, the latter being situated in Luxembourg. The Court of First Instance will comprise a central division with seats in London, Paris and Munich, and a number of local divisions (in the single contracting states) and regional divisions (where two or more contracting states prefer to establish a common division). Each member state will be allowed a maximum of four local divisions.

Italy ratified the UPC Agreement with law no. 214 of November 3, 2016 and requested only one local division, to be based in Milan. The Italian Ministry of Justice then formally selected the location for this local division, which will be hosted within the premises of the new Milan Courthouse, in Via San Barnaba no. 50.

The new courthouse is near to the centre of the city and a 15-minute walk from the Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral).

The UPC division will be on the second floor of the building, a total area of about 890m², and the offices are now almost complete and furnished.

The same courthouse, which has four floors in total, will also host the offices of the employment and family divisions of the Milan Court. In fact, the construction of the new building started in 2011 precisely to host some of the offices of the Milan Court, as the old courthouse—which is in front of the new one—was not big enough to house them all.

The new courthouse is near to the centre of the city and a 15-minute walk from the Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral). It can also be reached by underground rail; the yellow line and the red line both have stops less than 1km from the courthouse: the Crocetta stop and the San Babila stop, respectively.

Next in line

As a consequence of Brexit, and the potential impossibility for the UK to participate in the UPC, Milan might also host one of the seats of the central division, i.e., the one which was originally intended to be based in London. Italy was the EU state with the highest number of validated European patents after the UK, which was the criterion on which the countries hosting the seats of the central divisions were chosen.

Milan hosts about 70% of Italian patent litigation, and has particular expertise in the areas that are currently devolved to the jurisdiction of the London seat (particularly chemistry and metallurgy). Proceedings on pharmaceutical and chemical patents are the most important, if not numerically, for market impact and magnitude of the relevant proceedings, and those on metallurgical patents have always been typical of the traditional Italian industrial environment.

Furthermore, Milan would have no difficulty in finding a more spacious and suitable—not to mention prestigious—place to host the central division: the entire 2015 Expo site, of which several buildings remain standing, is destined to become a scientific-technological centre and could well host the court in one of its new buildings.

Elena Martini is a founding partner at  Martini Manna. She can be contacted at:  elena.martini@martinimanna.com

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