On 18 May 2023, the Italian government confirmed that the third Central Division seat of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) will be hosted in Milan.
The statement issued by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has said that the new seat will be operational within one year. However, with the UPC launch date approaching on 1 June 2023, Paris and Munich will initially share the caseload until Milan is operational, as confirmed by the UPC Presidium on 16 May 2023 (see our previous blog post).
Milan-based Joint Global Head of Intellectual Property, Laura Orlando, discussed the recent developments with Rory O'Neill at Managing IP.
Responding to the UPC's statement on 16 May, Laura said: "The announcement of that provisional split, in the absence of any reference to Milan, had led many readers and part of the Italian press to think that Italy would no longer have the third seat."
"This is a great achievement for the Italian IP and life sciences community, as much as for Milan and Italy," Laura said following Thursday's confirmation. She continued: "We have eventually arrived at the result that we have been working on for years."
The competency allocations between the three seats are yet to be finalised.
The original article "Milan confirmed for UPC central division" was published by Managing IP on 19 May 2023.
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