The Third Seat of the Unified Patent Court Division Officially Opened in Milan on 1 July 2024

The Milan branch of the Central Chamber of the Unified Patent Court was officially opened on 1 July 2024 and is now fully operational. It joins the Paris and Munich branches to decide on invalidity and non-infringement actions with regard to Section A patents (Human Necessities: agriculture, foodstuffs, tobacco, clothing, jewelry, furnishings, sanitary ware, entertainment), without Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs). The head office joins the local office already active since 2023 which deals with infringement actions, counterclaims for invalidity, and interlocutory proceedings.

On 1 July 2024, the official inauguration ceremony of the new headquarters of the Central Division of the Unified Patent Court in Milan took place, with the traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Justice. The day began with the public hearing for the swearing-in of the two togal judges appointed for the Milan headquarters, namely Anna-Lena Klein and Marije Knijff, before the President, Judge Andrea Postiglione. Subsequently, in the Aula Magna of the Civil and Criminal Court of Milan, a ceremony was held to present the new seat to the public, in the presence of many authorities, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Justice, the Vice-Minister for Business and Made in Italy, the President of the Court of Appeal of Milan, the President of the Court of Milan, the Mayor of Milan, and the President of the Lombardy Region. They all expressed great satisfaction and underlined the importance for Italy, for Lombardy and for Milan of the assignment of the third headquarters of the Central Division to Milan. Italy, in fact, after some initial resistance, has embraced the project and has decisively moved towards this Europeanist choice, crowned by the current prestigious recognition of the role of our country, the third largest in Europe in terms of number of patents after the United Kingdom.

The Italian Group of AIPPI had the honor of being among the organizers and speakers at the event, thanks to the prominent role it played from the outset in promoting the Unified Court project and, most recently, for its support for the choice of Milan as the third headquarters of the Central Division. In this context, we emphasized that the launch of the new system can be a great opportunity for the whole world revolving around intellectual property, and also to turn the spotlight on our national jurisdiction, which sees in the specialized IP sections its excellence, particularly in the area of precautionary measures.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the technical seminar took place, attended by a number of prominent speakers, including a large group of senior judges of the Unified Court, such as Klaus Grabinski, President of the UPC Court of Appeal and Presidium, Florence Butin, President of the Courts of First Instance, Paolo Catallozzi, Presiding Judge of the Central Court, Paris Branch, Pierluigi Perrotti, President of the Local Court of Milan, who all reported on the first year of work in their respective Courts. Of particular interest were the data on the cases filed before the Courts of First Instance by 25 June 2024. A total of 308, of which 154 actions for infringement, and 77 counterclaims. As of 20 June 2024, 72 appeals and two discretionary reviews had been filed. Also very interesting were the updates on the choice of language applicable to the trial. President Grabinski referred to the order of 17/4/2024 in the case Curto Bioscience/10x Genomics, where a number of important points were laid down. In particular, when deciding on a request to change the language of proceedings into the language of the patent on grounds of fairness, according to the judges all relevant circumstances shall be taken into account, based on the specific case and the position of the parties, in particular the position of the defendant, such as nationality, domicile or seat, language mostly used in the field of technology, size of the parties relative to each other, effects of a change of language in relation to delay and urgency of the case, etc. If the outcome of balancing of interests is equal, the position of the defendant is the decisive factor.