Third Central Division of the Unified Patent Court to Be Established in Milan

As reported earlier this year (see our blog post), it had long remained unclear where the third seat of the Central Division will be established after the United Kingdom decided to leave the European Union and the Unified Patent Court (UPC) system. Milan was long discussed as potential successor of the Central Division’s London seat.

After the UPC having provided an interim solution by splitting the cases of the former London section between the Paris and Munich seats of the Central Division, the UPC’s Administrative Committee has now decided that the third seat of the Central Division shall be established in Milan.

Originally the London section of the Central Division was supposed to hear cases on human necessities, chemistry and metallurgy. However, a reallocation of cases pending at the Central Division was also decided:

• Milan shall hear only cases with regards to human necessities, without Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs);
• Munich will in addition to its originally assigned competences for mechanical engineering, lighting, heating, weapons and blasting also hear cases on chemistry and metallurgy without SPCs; and
• Paris being originally competent to hear cases on performing operations, transporting, textiles, paper, fixed constructions, physics and electricity shall additionally also be competent for SPCs.

These changes require an amendment of Art. 7(2) and Annex II of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA), meaning that the decision of the Administrative Committee shall not take effect if a Contracting Member State declares within twelve months of the date of the decision, that it does not wish to be bound by the decision (Art. 87(3) UPCA). In view of this the Administrative Committee noted: “In bona fide and without prejudice to Article 87(3) UPCA, preparatory work will start upon the adoption of this decision to ensure that the amendments that are the subject matter of the decision are fully and immediately operational at the moment of its entry into effect.” And the Italian Government announced that it is already “working to make the Milan Section fully operational within the timeframe envisaged by the Agreement (12 months under Art. 87.3)”.