When the Unified Patent Court (UPC) announced the appointment of five new legally qualified judges (December 23, 2025 ip fray article), we wrote:
- It looks like the Dusseldorf LD will now have two panels, presumably with Judge Dr. Bérénice Thom presiding over the second panel.
This has now been confirmed. We have just seen two UPC documents dated January 20, 2026. One of them, signed by Court of First Instance (CFI) President Florence Butin states the following decision:
Article 1
The Panels of the Local Division Düsseldorf are composed as follows:
Panel 1:
Ms. Jule Schumacher
Mr. Ronny ThomasPanel 2:
Mr. Ingo Rinken
Ms. Berenice ThomArticle 2
The present decision will enter into force on 1 March 2026.
Another, bearing the same date and signed by Presiding Dr. Klaus Grabinski as Chairman of the Presidium of the UPC, states the following:
Article 1
The Presiding judges of the Panels of the Local Division Düsseldorf are designated as follows:
Panel 1: Mr. Ronny Thomas
Panel 2: Ms. Berenice Thom
The Presiding judges of the Panels of the Local Division Munich are designated as follows:
Panel 1: Mr. Matthias Zigann
Panel 2: Mr. Daniel Voss
Article 2
The present decision will enter into force as of 1 March 2026.
The Munich LD already had two panels. Dusseldorf is now getting a second panel, too. Those are the only two CFI divisions at this point to have two panels.