The Roadmap to the Unified Patent Court

The Unified Patent Court has published a roadmap and is expected to open on 1 April 2023. The sunrise period should therefore start on 1 January 2023. This will enable patentees to start opting European bundle patents and SPCs granted for products protected by such patents out of the UPC system.

The UPC also announced the names of the judges appointed to the Court. Thirty-four legally qualified and 51 technically qualified judges have been appointed. A few appointments remain outstanding, and these will be completed prior to the Court opening.

Seven renowned judges have been appointed to the Court of Appeal. Two of them are from Germany (Mr. Klaus Grabinski and Ms. Patrica Rombach) and two are from the Netherlands (Mr. Peter Blok and Ms. Rian Kalden). The remaining judges are Ms. Françoise Barutel from France, Ms. Emanuela Germano from Italy. and Ms. Ingeborg Simonsson from Sweden. Klaus Grabinski, a renowned judge of the German Federal Supreme Court with extensive experience in patent law, will be the presiding judge.

The initial allocation of legal judges to the Courts of First Instance has been announced. As with the Court of Appeal, many of the appointees are existing judges with extensive experience in patent matters. The technical judges include a mixture of patent attorneys and specialist patent lawyers, all of whom are familiar with patent litigation.

We are still awaiting an announcement from the Court regarding exactly where life sciences cases in the Central Division will be heard. It is possible these cases will be heard in Milan, or alternatively, the cases may be split between Munich and Paris.

For more information, visit our Insights:

Unified Patent Court FAQ

Unitary Patent FAQ

Strategic Considerations for Opting in or out of the Unified Patent Court