On 16 May 2023, the Presidium of the Unified Patent Court issued its
decision that, as from 1 June 2023:
- actions pending before the central division related to patents in IPC section (A) “human necessities” shall be assigned to the seat in Paris
- actions related to patents in IPC section (C) “chemistry” and “metallurgy” shall be assigned to the section in Munich.
All this followed the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Agreement.
The decision was issued on a provisional basis, lacking any final decision on the creation of another section of the central division.
Yesterday, the Italian Foreign Office published a
press release announcing that Italy, France and Germany have reached an agreement on the Milan seat. The agreement will be formally approved at the next meeting of the Administrative Committee of the Unified Patent Court. The seat will not enter into force on 1st June 2023 and competences are yet to be known.
This said,
informal talks suggest that the Milan seat may start its operations on 1st June 2024. The IPKat will provide an update as soon as it is available.
France and Germany have decided that.... To be frank, that seems open to challenge. The Agreement seems to have bceom irrelevant
ReplyDeleteThe decision of the Presidium of the UPC is superseded by a new event.
ReplyDeleteIn a press release of the Italian Ministry of Foreign affairs of 18.05.2023, the latter announced that the French, German and Italian government have agreed on Milan becoming the third location of the central division instead of London.
https://www.esteri.it/en/sala_stampa/archivionotizie/comunicati/2023/05/tribunale-unico-dei-brevetti-italia-otterra-sezione-distaccata-per-milano/ The text is in English
The IPC classes allocated to Milan will most probably not be the IPC classes A and C, but related to “sectors relevant to the Italian entrepreneurial system”.
“The agreement … will be submitted to the other Contracting States of the Unified Patent Court during the next Administrative Committee meeting in order to be formalised”, means that the AC will decide on the new location so that the new allocation is in principle valid as of 01.06.2023.
Further to the revisions laid down in Art 87(1) UPCA, the three governments have agreed that a further revision will take place in 2026.
Strong doubts are permitted whether such bargaining and amendments of the status of a court by the executive is in accordance with the rule of law.