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22 May 2023PatentsMuireann Bolger

UPC cities for central division seats confirmed

London lost seat after the UK’s official withdrawal from the EU in 2020 | Trio of cities confirmed following alleged difficulties in negotiations concerning jurisdictional authority.

The Unified Patent Court (UPC)’s central division seats will be located in the cities of Munich, Paris and Milan, putting an end to months of speculation over the location of the final seat.

Following the UK’s official withdrawal from the EU in 2020 and the agreement establishing the UPC, the seat originally earmarked for London needed to be reassigned.

This gap created a question mark over which city would be chosen alongside Paris and Munich.

Italy immediately made a strong case for securing the third seat in Milan, pitching the city as one of Europe’s main hubs in innovation and IP.

But last week, the UPC formally announced that when the court opens its doors on June 1, that the court’s competencies would provisionally be divided between Munich and Paris.

Difficult talks

The court’s omission of any mention of Milan created surprise in IP circles, and allegedly followed unexpected difficulties that transpired during negotiations concerning the third seat, according to the Kluwer Patent Blog.

Since March, reports suggested that Milan advocates were under pressure to confer a considerable share of the consistencies originally assigned to London to Munich and Paris.

Munich dignitaries allegedly wanted jurisdiction over chemistry and metallurgy cases, while Paris officials had insisted on having authority over pharmaceutical patents with supplementary patent certificates (SPCs).

Patents with SPCs—an IP right that extends a patent by up to five years for a pharmaceutical or plant protection product that has been authorised by regulatory authorities—represent a huge chunk (90%) of the current marketplace.

In March, Italian industry and legal representatives described such demands as “unacceptable”, sending an open letter of complaint to MP Giancarlo Giorgetti, the Italian minister of economy and finance.

In late April, Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio said that “Italy would not give in”.

Operational ‘within a year’

However, on May 18, the Italian government confirmed in a press release that it had finally agreed with France and Germany to set up a branch of the central division of the UPC in Milan.

It said that the government had been undergoing the legal and operational procedures required for the seat to be established and operational within a year.

“The member states of the UPC have recognised the merits and objective reasons in support of Milan’s candidacy,” noted the release.

The agreement, negotiated for Italy by the Italian ministries of foreign affairs and justice, will be submitted to the other contracting states of the UPC during the next administrative committee meeting in order to be formalised.

“This is an important result for Italy and for the Lombard capital, the result of a political choice by UPC member states and intense political and diplomatic action by Italy,” said the release.

The Milan branch will rule on important unitary patent disputes from all European countries that have joined the UPC, in sectors relevant to the Italian entrepreneurial system, it confirmed.

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