HSF shares insights on the Milan local division UPC judges for Managing IP

Following the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Administrative Committee's appointment of 85 legal and technical judges last month, including the appointment of two legally qualified judges in the Milan local division, Herbert Smith Freehills' Joint Global Head of Intellectual Property Laura Orlando shares her insights with Managing IP on what this may mean for the UPC.

Commenting on the appointment of Pierluigi Perrotti and Alima Zana from the District Court of Milan, Laura says "there has been a high turnover recently in the domestic courts and that a number of new judges have joined the IP division. Conversely, Zana and Perrotti have been at the division for several years. Certainly, they are the judges with the most experience of patent cases.”

Discussing their respective styles, Laura says that "both Zana and Perrotti tend to carefully consider the established case law and approach previously taken in similar cases at the Italian and foreign courts, as well as the European Patent Office's (EPO) approach to patent validity. This also stems from the standard Italian practice of using European patent attorneys as court experts in patent cases".

Laura adds "Perrotti, in addition to his work as a judge, has always been very active in non-judicial activities, such as panel discussions at universities."

The original article “Experience will benefit Italy’s UPC judges” was published by Max Walters at Managing IP on 17 November 2022. The full article is available to subscribers-only.

More information about the UPC and unitary patent can be found on our dedicated UPC & UP Hub.

For any questions relating to the UPC, please contact Laura Orlando or another member of our European patents team.