UPC Advisory Committee to predominantly consist of senior judges from across UPC countries

In our blog last month we reported on the inaugural meeting of the UPC Administrative Committee, during which members of the UPC Advisory Committee were appointed. The Advisory Committee will handle the important task of interviewing UPC judges and preparing a ranking of suitable candidates – the Administrative Committee will then formally make judicial appointments. Other responsibilities of the Advisory Committee include making proposals on the guidelines for the training framework for judges and delivering opinions to the Administrative Committee concerning UPC representatives’ qualification requirements. We reported earlier that there is a question mark over the eligibility of UK based patent attorneys.

Details of the Administrative Committee meeting are available on the UPC’s website. Those details include the identification of the members of the Advisory Committee. Most members are senior judges from a number of different UPC member states.

Willem Hoyng, a Dutch practitioner, academic and well-known patent litigator is a member and, according to JUVE Patent, leads the Advisory Committee. The French honorary judge at the Court of Cessation in Paris, Sylvie Mandel, will serve as deputy head.

Other individuals appointed to the Advisory Committee (representing 13 nationalities in total) include:

Judges

• Reinhard Hinger (presiding judge of the Chamber ruling Patent and Trademarks at the High Court of Appeal, Vienna, Austria)
• Els Herregodts (Advocate General at the Supreme Court of Belgium)
• Lyubka Petrova (judge at the Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria)
• Mads Bundgaard Larsen (Vice-President of the Maritime and Commercial High Court of Denmark)
• Kimmo Mikkola (former President of the Market Court of Finland)
• Marie Courboulay (honorary judge at the Judicial court of Paris, France) (alternate member of the Advisory Committee – alternate members have been proposed from some countries to ensure a broad range of relevant expertise. Although alternate members are allowed to attend meetings with the other member from the same member state, the alternate member does not have a right to vote if both members are present)
• Joachim Bornkamm (former presiding judge at the Federal Court of Justice of Germany)
• Peter Meier-Beck (former presiding judge at the Federal Court of Justice of Germany) (alternate member)
• Vittorio Ragonesi (honorary judge at the Supreme Court of Cassation, Rome, Italy)
• Toon Huydecoper (former advocate-general at the Supreme Court of the Netherlands) (alternate member)
• Marko Brus (higher court judge in the Commercial Dispute Division of Ljubljana, Slovenia)
• Peter Strömberg (former President of the Court of Patent Appeals of Sweden)

Practitioners

• Mart Enn Koppel (patent attorney of Estonia)
• Emmanuelle Ragot (attorney at law of Luxembourg)

The Advisory Committee will now proceed to interview judges and present recommendations to the Administrative Committee. JUVE Patent reports that so far around 1,000 applications from judges have been submitted. The UPC Budget Committee’s draft budget suggests that there is expected to be between 32-42 legally qualified judges and 50 technically qualified judges appointed.