UPC Structure – local, regional and central divisions and Court of Appeal, Judges & Languages

The UPC has a Court of First Instance (divided into local, regional and central divisions) and a Court of Appeal (Luxembourg). Cases can commence in any one of these divisions according to the subject matter and the prescribed division set out in the UPC Agreement and the UPC Rules.

Central Division

The main seat of the central division is Paris with further seats in Munich and Milan. 

The work of the central division is divided according to the subject matter of the patent in dispute based on IPC classifications (as set out in this Decision of the UPC Administrative Committee of 26 June 2023):

• Paris: The Paris seat of the central division hears all cases involving patents in IPC sections (B), (D), (E), (G) and (H), as well as all cases involving patent with SPCs in classes (A) or (C).  
• Munich:  Cases involving patents in IPC class F (concerning mechanical engineering, lighting, heating, weapons and blasting), and IPC class (C) (Chemistry, metallurgy, including some pharmaceuticals and patents relating to peptides and nucleic acids and also genetic engineering – but not those patents with SPCs which are dealt with by the Paris seat), are allocated to the Munich seat of the central division.
• Milan: The Milan seat of the central division (which opened on 27 June) handles cases involving patent in IPC class (A) Human necessities (although not those involving supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) which will be dealt with by Paris). See our blog post here.

Under the UPC Agreement (UPCA) London had originally been assigned one of the central division seats and was to have been assigned cases on patents involving human necessities (A) and pharmaceuticals/chemistry including genetic engineering and metallurgy (International Patent Classification of WIPO sections (A) and (C)). However, once London left the UPCA, these needed to be reassigned and a third seat reallocated. This third seat was then allocated to Milan, following the amendment of the UPCA (see here). 

Local and regional divisions

The UPC website has a page confirming the location of the various local and regional divisions of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) (see here).  Whilst all other participating states have one local court (or participate in the Nordic-Baltic regional division), Germany has four local division courts - Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Mannheim and Munich.

Under the UPC Agreement, Court of First Instance courts like these in states where there are on average more than 50 patent cases a year under current national patent litigation proceedings have a judicial panel of three legally qualified judges, two of whom are local nationals of that state (or of those states in the case of the regional division), plus one technically qualified judge. 

The following are legally qualified judges (LQJs) listed for each of the Local and Regional division courts: 

Local division LQJs:

• Vienna, Austria - Mr Walter Schober (AT)
• Brussels, Belgium - Mr Samuel Granata (BE)
• Copenhagen, Denmark – Mr Peter Agergaard (DK)
• Helsinki, Finland – Mr Petri Rinkinen (FI)
• Paris, France – Ms Carine Gillet (FR), Ms Camille Lignieres (FR)
• Düsseldorf, Germany – Ms Bérénice Thom (DE) Mr Ronny Thomas (DE)
• Hamburg, Germany – Ms Sabine Klepsch (DE), Mr Stefan Schilling (DE)
• Mannheim, Germany – Mr Holger Kircher (DE), Mr Peter Michael Tochtermann (DE), Mr Dirk Böttcher (DE)
• Munich, Germany – Mr Tobias Pichlmaier (DE), Mr Matthias Zigann (DE), Ms Ulrike Voβ (DE), Mr Daniel Voβ (DE).
• Milan, Italy – Mr Pierluigi Perrotti (IT), Ms Alima Zana (IT)
• Lisbon, Portugal – Ms Rute Lopes (PT)
• Ljubljana, Slovenia – Ms Mojca Mlakar (SI)
• The Hague, The Netherlands – Mr Edger Brinkman (NL), Ms Margot Kokke (NL)

Regional division LQJs:

• Stockholm (SE) – Seat of the Regional Division - Mr Stefan Johansson (SE)

Court of appeal judges and presidium

The Court of Appeal has the following legally qualified judges listed:

• Mr Klaus Grabinski (DE) President of the Court of Appeal
• Mr Emmanuel Gougé (FR)
• Mr Peter Blok (NL)
• Ms Emanuela Germano (IT)
• Ms Rian Kalden (NL)
• Ms Patricia Rombach (DE)
• Ms Ingeborg Simonsson (SE)

Presidium: The Unified Patent Court is 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 is completed by two judges from the Court of Appeal: Ms Rian Kalden (NL) 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). In addition, Ms Rian Kalden has been elected as Presiding judge of the second panel of the Court of Appeal.