The UPC has announced that the UPC Presidium has exercised its managerial power to decide that matters before the UPC that would have fallen under the patent classifications (A and C) that would have originally gone to London until the UK withdrew from the UPC Agreement, will be shared between Paris and Munich initially, as of the UPC start date of 1 June 2023, until such time as a decision has been made on the third seat.
So matters that go to the central division, involving patents from:
- Class A: Human necessities (including pharma) – will be heard at the Paris seat
- Class C: Chemistry (including genetic engineering) – will be heard at the Munich seat
The announcement says that:
"The Preparatory Committee interpreted Article 7(2) of the
UPCA and Annex II thereof, with regard to the allocation of cases
to a section of the Central Division in London as having no effect
and that the competence for these cases can be dealt with
provisionally until a final decision is taken on the creation of
another section of the central division." And so "Having
also taken into consideration that the Administrative Committee has
not yet reached such a final decision and the Agreement will enter
into force on 1 June 2023, the Presidium has exercised its
managerial power under Article 15(3) of the Statute of the Unified
Patent Court in the aforementioned sense."
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