31/01/2024
On 26 January 2024, the Headquarters Agreement was signed by the President of the Court of Appeal of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), Klaus Grabinski, and the Director General for Europe of the Italian Foreign Ministry, Nicola Verola, formally confirming the location of the third section of the Central Division of the UPC in Milan.
The Headquarters Agreement follows the agreement between the French, German and Italian governments (reported here) and the subsequent decision of the Administrative Committee of the UPC exactly seven months prior on 26 June 2023 to locate the third section of the Central Division in Milan. This followed the UK’s withdrawal from the UPC post Brexit (London being the original location of this section). The Milan section will begin hearing cases from 1st June 2024 in “human necessities” (IPC section (A)).
While there have been some commentators questioning the legal means by which the UPC Agreement (UPCA) was amended by the Administrative Committee to replace the reference to London with Milan in Article 7(2) UPCA, it seems likely that the “London Problem” has now been settled. After all, legal certainty is typically valued by both sides in an action, and one can expect the Court to take a pragmatic approach to any overly academic arguments on the validity of the Milan section.
The Italian Government clearly considers this a win, with Italian Deputy Prime Minister stating that “with the Headquarters Agreement – the first in Europe since the Patent Court came into operation – Italy wishes to strengthen its cooperation with the UPC and undertakes to ensure that the UPC offices in our country can operate under the best conditions”. However, in practice, given that the judges must be multinational and that it is expected that most proceedings will be heard in English, the locale of the third section of the Central Division in Milan will likely only have limited effect on cases heard there.
At Reddie & Grose, we continue to advise our clients on Unitary Patent (UP) and UPC matters. Our multinational team of European Patent Litigators capable of representing clients before the UPC has experience in cases before national judges and the EPO in a number of languages. If you have any questions relating to UPs or the UPC, please contact one of our expert team.
This article is for general information only. Its content is not a statement of the law on any subject and does not constitute advice. Please contact Reddie & Grose LLP for advice before taking any action in reliance on it.
