UPC’s divisional court locations revealed
The court’s administrative committee confirmed several new steps during its second meeting in Luxembourg | Germany will have four divisions | Committee agreed procedural rules and fees | Bird & Bird.
The divisional locations of the much anticipated Unified Patent Court (UPC) have finally been revealed, with operations forecast to start early next year.
The plans were confirmed in an official announcement released by the judicial body’s administrative committee yesterday, July 14.
The divisional courts will be in Vienna, Austria; Brussels, Belgium; Copenhagen, Denmark; Helsinki, Finland and Paris, France.
Germany will have four divisions, located in Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Mannheim and Munich, while others will be located in Milan, Italy; The Hague, The Netherlands; Ljubljana, Slovenia and Lisbon, Portugal.
The regional Nordic-Baltic division will be mainly located in Stockholm, while the committee decreed that the UPC's patent mediation and arbitration centre will be set up in Ljubljana and Lisbon.
The administrative committee agreed to these locations during its second-ever meeting on Friday, July 8, which took place largely onsite in Luxembourg with the participation of all contracting member states.
The committee also adopted the court’s rules of procedure and its table of fees, both of which will enter into force on September 1, 2022.
Judicial appointments
In accordance with article 14 of the UPC agreement, the chair of the advisory committee presented the recommended list of the most suitable candidates to be appointed as UPC judges.
This list is expected to be adopted any time soon before the summer break, following the conclusion of a written procedure.
In addition, the committee adopted the UPC’s rules on duty travel, which include incentives for low-carbon emission modes of transport.
The committee also paved the way for the court’s future recruitment of staff and officials, by adopting its medical and social security plan, pension scheme, and tax system.
Full steam ahead for next year
According to the decisions taken by the administrative committee, the timing of the start of operations of the court can reasonably be expected to occur in early 2023.
All non-confidential adopted documents will be made available this week on the court’s website. A consolidated version of the rules of procedure will be subject to some “legal scrubbing”, before being published during the course of the summer, and then entering into force on September 1, 2022.
Once these final steps have been taken, the road forward should be a smooth one, according to Wouter Pors, partner at Bird & Bird: “Once the administrative committee is confident that the UPC is ready for business, Germany will deposit its ratification in order to set the starting date for the UPC.
“The deposition of that ratification starts the sunrise period, the court will open for business on the first day of the fourth month after that deposition.
“The current expectation is that the sunrise period will start in October or November this year and the court will open for business in January or February.” said Pors.
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