On 22 February 2022, the Unified Patent Court’s Administrative Committee held its inaugural meeting in Luxembourg, at the seat of the Court of Appeal and the Registry. The meeting took place following the entry into force of the Protocol on Provisional Application (PAP) of the UPC Agreement on 19 January 2022, which marked the birth of the Unified Patent Court as an international organisation. The meeting was attended by delegates from all Contracting Member States and several observer Member States.

Besides adopting the Committee’s Rules of Procedure, which set out its legal framework, the Committee also adopted important instruments of the UPC’s secondary legislation, such as the Rules on the European Patent Litigation Certificate and other appropriate qualifications, the UPC’s Service and Staff Regulations, as well as its Financial Regulations.

The Committee also appointed the members of the Advisory Committee, who will have the central task of interviewing candidate judges for the Court. The interviewing process was expected to start at the end of March 2022 to allow the Committee to appoint judges to form panels at the different divisions of the UPC later this year.

At the meeting, several Member States officially confirmed their intention to set up a local or regional division of the UPC, in particular: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany (four local divisions), Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden (regional Nordic-Baltic division) and Portugal. To read the UPC’s announcement in full, click here.