UPC Advisory Committee and UPC Budget Committee hold inaugural meetings

In a recent blog post, we reported that the UPC Administrative Committee held its first meeting in Luxembourg on 22 February 2022. The UPC Budget Committee and UPC Advisory Committee have now also held their inaugural meetings, meaning that each of the UPC Governing Bodies has now started their work to ensure the effective implementation and operation of the UPC Agreement.

UPC Advisory Committee

As we reported previously, one of the decisions made at the first meeting of the UPC Administrative Committee meeting was to appoint members of the UPC Advisory Committee, which will shortlist and interview candidate judges for the new court and will assist in training them once they are appointed. It has been reported that around 1,000 applications have been received, from which around 92 judges (and 45 reserve judges) will be selected. Some judges will be full-time and others will be part-time, with the aim of allowing some flexibility to deal with the UPC's case load – which understandably is difficult to predict in advance.

The members and alternate members of the UPC Advisory Committee are as follows (see the official document here). Each has been proposed by a Contracting Member State that has ratified the Protocol on Provisional Application of the UPC Agreement, but is independent from the Contracting Member State that proposed him or her. Most are senior patent judges.

Members and alternate members appointed to the Advisory Committee

• Reinhard Hinger, presiding judge of the Chamber ruling Patent and Trademarks at the High Court of Appeal, Vienna, Austria
• Els Herregodts, Advocate General at the Supreme Court of Belgium
• Lyubka Petrova, judge at the Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria
• Mads Bundgaard Larsen, Vice-President of the Maritime and Commercial High Court, Denmark
• Mart Enn Koppel, patent attorney, Estonia
• Kimmo Mikkola, former President of the Market Court, Finland
• Sylvie Mandel, honorary judge at the Court of Cassation, France
• Marie Courboulay, honorary judge at the Judicial court of Paris, France
• Joachim Bornkamm, former presiding judge at the Federal Court of Justice, Germany
• Peter Meier-Beck, former presiding judge at the Federal Court of Justice, Germany (alternate member)
• Vittorio Ragonesi, honorary judge at the Supreme Court of Cassation, Rome, Italy
• Emmanuelle Ragot, attorney at law, Luxembourg
• Willem Hoyng, attorney at law and professor in IP law, Netherlands
• Toon Huydecoper, former advocate-general at the Supreme Court of the Netherlands (alternate member)
• Peter Strömberg, former President of the Court of Patent Appeals, Sweden
• Marko Brus, higher court judge in the Commercial Dispute Division (Ljubljana), Slovenia

The newly-appointed Advisory Committee met for the first time on 24 February 2022.

UPC Budget Committee

At the Budget Committee's inaugural meeting on 23 February 2022, the Committee adopted its Rules of Procedure and the budget for the provisional application period. Contracting Member States have now been asked to make their first contributions within 6 weeks. This will provide the UPC with important working capital to use in the coming months, for example when recruiting and training judges.

Our fully integrated, market leading European patent litigation team is ready to advise on all aspects of the practical and strategic issues you should be considering in preparation for the UPC. Please contact us for further information. Here is a link to our UP and UPC hub.