The Administrative Committee of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) held its second meeting on 8 July 2022.
A major step was taken by the Committee by adopting the Court's Rules of Procedure and its Table of Fees – these will both will enter into force on 1 September 2022 (following legal scrubbing these will be published during the course of the summer). In addition, in the framework of the operational activities of the UPC, the Committee adopted the UPC's Rules on duty travel, which include incentives for low-carbon emission modes of transport.
At the meeting, the Committee also confirmed the setting-up of local and regional divisions of the Court of First Instance. These divisions will be located in Austria (Vienna), Belgium (Brussels), Demark (Copenhagen), Finland (Helsinki), France (Paris), Germany (Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Mannheim, Munich), Italy (Milan), the Netherlands (The Hague), Slovenia (Ljubljana) and Portugal (Lisbon). The regional Nordic-Baltic division will be mainly located in Sweden (Stockholm). As to the UPC's Patent Mediation and Arbitration centre, the Committee adopted the Organisational Rules of this Centre, to be set up with seats in Ljubljana and Lisbon.
The recommended list of the most suitable candidates to be appointed as judges of the Unified Patent Court was also finalised. This list is expected to be adopted any time soon before the summer break.
Further to these key decisions, the Administrative Committee has stated that the timing of the start of operations of the Court can reasonably be expected to occur in early 2023.
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