ip fray is following the Unified Patent Court (UPC) closely and tracking the development of its case law. This does not mean to be biased in favor of the UPC: much to the contrary, ip fray has criticized the state of affairs of the case management system (CMS) and has been keeping an eye on whether part-time judges could run into conflicts of interest. But so far there has not been a single case where, in ip fray‘s observation, even a remotely reasonable accusation of a conflict of interest could have been made. And a new CMS will be put in place with help from the European Patent Office (EPO) (July 19, 2024 LinkedIn post by ip fray).
This is a very short article just to acknowledge the extent to which UPC judges go beyond the call of duty.
This is the main vacation season of the year, and they keep issuing order after order, judgment after judgment. That should not be taken for granted. They go the extra mile to keep the court’s timelines.
Is the UPC the most motivated patent court in the world now? It may be, though to be fair, Judge Alan D. Albright’s dedication in the Western District of Texas is second to none. It’s just a lot harder to have an entire judicial body (in this case, even spread out over an entire continent and with two levels, the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal) where everyone is so committed.
This is, however, not sustainable. It will be important to provide this judicial body with sufficient resources because at some point the judges will want to go back to a normal workload or at least something closer to it.
What’s also admirable is the team spirit. Judges who are or were presiding judges on national courts accept to serve as side judges on the UPC. It’s not uncommon for entire UPC panels of three judges to consist of current and former presiding judges of national courts, even of national appeals courts. Take the first panel of the Munich Local Division, for instance. Presiding Judge Dr. Matthias Zigann, who is now a full-time UPC judge, presided over a division of the Munich Higher Regional Court. Meanwhile, Judge Tobias Pichlmaier has also become a Presiding Higher Regional Court Judge in Germany, but has no problem sitting on the UPC as a side judge. Then the two are joined by a third judge, who more often than not is also a presiding judge.
The UPC is an Unusual Patent Court.