Unified Patent Court (UPC) judges announced and UPC Presidium elected
On 19 October 2022, the Administrative Committee of the UPC announced the list of 85 UPC judges, comprising 34 legally qualified and 51 technically qualified judges from 13 of the 17 initial UPC contracting states. The list being the result of an extensive selection process concluded by the adoption, by the Administrative Committee, of the list of most suitable candidate judges as proposed by the UPC’s Advisory Committee.
For the Court of Appeal in in Luxembourg, seven legally qualified judges have been appointed. For the Court of First Instance, four legally qualified judges have been appointed for the seat of the Central Division in Paris (with one post still open), two legally qualified judges have been appointed for the section of the Central Division in Munich.
Further, legally qualified judges have been appointed for Local Divisions: one in Vienna, one in Brussels, one in Helsinki, two in Paris, two in Düsseldorf, two in Hamburg, two in Mannheim, two in Munich, two in The Hague, and two legally qualified judges have been appointed for the Nordic-Baltic Regional Division for Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden. No legally qualified judge has been appointed in Copenhagen although there one post to be filled.
The technically qualified judges have been appointed for the fields of technology: eight for Biotechnology, ten for Chemistry and Pharmaceutics, nine for Electricity, 16 for Mechanical Engineering and eight for Physics.
The 34 appointed legally qualified judges and the 51 technically qualified judges come from 13 UPC contracting states:
| Country | Legally qualified judges | Technically qualified judges |
|---|---|---|
| Austria | 1 | 0 |
| Belgium | 1 | 4 |
| Bulgaria | 1 | 0 |
| Germany | 12 | 16 |
| Denmark | 1 | 4 |
| Estonia | 1 | 0 |
| Finland | 1 | 3 |
| France | 5 | 12 |
| Italy | 4 | 7 |
| Netherlands | 4 | 3 |
| Portugal | 1 | 0 |
| Sweden | 2 | 2 |
| Slovenia | 1 | 0 |
However, it should be noted that the majority of these judges will work part-time for the UPC. All open posts are likely to be filled before start of UPC’s operation.
The UPC’s Presidium has been elected in accordance with its Statute. The UPC will be led by Mr Klaus Grabinski (DE), as President of the Court of Appeal, and Ms Florence Butin (FR), as President of the Court of First Instance. The Presidium further comprises two judges from the Court of Appeal, Ms Rian Kalden (NL), as Presiding judge of the second panel of the Court of Appeal, and Ms Ingeborg Simonsson (SE), and three judges from the Court of First Instance, Ms Camille Lignieres (FR), Mr Ronny Thomas (DE) and Mr Peter Tochtermann (DE). The Presidium will take up its duties in advance of the start of operations of the Court.
The UPC website announcement contains further information.
According to the UPC implementation roadmap published on 06 October 2022, it is expected that the UPC opens its doors on 01 April 2023.
