Recruitment of UPC Judges is now open

The preparatory committee has now published the first job openings at the Unified Patent court.

The recruitment of legally qualified and of technically qualified judges of the Unified Patent Court (Court of First Instance and Court of Appeal) has been launched with the publication of the vacancy notices in English, French, and German. The deadline for applications is 4 July 2016.

The finalization of the appointment procedure is dependent on the entry into force of the Protocol on Provisional Application and subsequently the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court.

According to the recruitment information, the following procedure will apply:

The selection process of candidates for judicial posts at the UPC consists of the following steps:

1. A first round of candidates’ selection will be carried out on the basis of answers provided in the Application Form, together with the candidates’ Curriculum Vitae, references and any other relevant document provided.

2. The candidates selected by the Advisory Committee on the basis of this first round of the selection process will be invited to an interview, carried out by members of the Advisory Committee. The interview will aim at evaluating skills necessary for judicial functions at the UPC, such as judicial ethics, experience in meeting tight deadlines, oral communication skills, the capacity to work in a multinational and multilingual environment, etc.

3. Following the first round of selection and the interviews, the Advisory Committee will present a list to the Administrative Committee, recommending the most suitable candidates for posts of judges at the UPC.

4. Based on this list, the Administrative Committee will appoint the necessary number of judges for a proper functioning of the UPC. When appointing judges, the Administrative Committee will ensure the best legal and technical expertise and a balanced composition of the UPC, on as broad a geographical basis as possible among nationals of the Contracting Member States.

This blogger is pleased to note that the "skills" filter (Steps 2 and 3) is applied prior to considering the criterion of a "broad geographical basis", which enters the game only in step 4.  This avoids that unexperienced judges can be favoured over more experienced ones for mere political reasons.


A recent IPKat post pointing out that an independent body for enforcing the code of conduct of future representatives before the UPC is lacking, resulting in a potential violation of Art. 6 ECHR, and the ongoing discussion on disciplinary measures of the EPO BoA made me thinking: How could a hypothetical code of conduct of UPC judges be enforced?

The structure of the code of conduct for the judges will most likely have some similarity to the code of conduct of the ECJ judges, where The President of the Court of Justice, assisted by a Consultative Committee composed of the three Members of the Court of Justice who have been longest in office, shall be responsible for ensuring the proper application of this Code of Conduct. Is this a good solution? Or should the decisions of the president be open to judicial review (e.g. by the ECJ?)

13th meeting of the UPC Preparatory Committee

The UPC Preparatory Committee has published its report on its 13th meeting on its website. Alexander Ramsay (SE), the previous Vice Chair of the Committee was elected Chair and Louise Åkerblom (LU) was elected to replace him as Vice Chair. An agreement on the Meditaion Rules was reached. According to the knowledge of this blogger, these Meditaton Rules have bot yet been published. 

A proposal for court fees and the ceiling for the recoverable costs received "favourable comments" but still needs some fine-tuning and there is "emerging consensus" on the Protocol on Privileges and Immunity of the UPC.

Further issues on the schedule for the next meeting are

• the Rules governing the Registry
• the Rules of the Advisory Committee,
• the Service Regulation and
• the design of the judicial recruitment and training process, wherein the latter will be dealt with by a working group in a highly prioritised work-stream.

The next meeting of the Committee will take place 24 & 25 February 2016.

Alexander Ramsay further shares this and some other information in an interview with Euroforum.

Training for UPC technical judges: a first for CEIPI

"The creation of the Unified Patent Court represents a turning point in the history of European intellectual property law. The judges of the Unified Patent Court will be central actors for the success of the Unified Patent Court and the entire patent package". 

Not so easy: so will
training help?

So says the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI) which, in collaboration with the French IP office INPI, is lending its experience in training public servants, its long-standing academic tradition and its connection with key international intellectual property organizations at the service of a training programme which is intended to meet the needs of the new generation of technically qualified judges who will be populating Europe's new Unified Patent Court.

The 1st edition of this course will take place from September to November 2015:

• 1st. module: 24, 25 and 26 September 2015 
• 2nd. module: 29, 30 and 31 October 2015 
• 3rd. module: 19, 20 and 21 November 2015

It will cost you, though. Tuition fees are €2, 900 .

You can download the programme and the registration form via the CEIPI website here. Don't leave it too long though: the deadline for enrolment is 1 August 2015.

UPC has its first premises - and new rules of procedure

Mr. Rubik, Hungarias model-inventor

The training centre for the future Judges of the UPC has been opened yesterday in Budapest.  According to the press release of the EPO:

Speaking about the Hungarian patent system, Miklós Bendzsel, President of the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office, said: "The system will be 120 years old in 2015. In the European innovation processes Hungary does not merely provide a creative workshop for products like Rubik's Cube, glass concrete or the intelligent surgical knife (iKnife); but our country is among the best as regards the contribution of IP intensive industries to the GDP and to employment." Mr Bendzsel added: "All this provides an excellent background for the operation of a Training Centre for judges working within the system established for the European patent with unitary effect. Budapest ensures a high quality framework for the nurturing of this new legal practice combining technical, legal and economic knowledge."

This blogger likes Budapest a lot and thinks this venue is well chosen.

Besides of this, the 16th draft of the rules of procedure is open for consultation.

First catch your judges, then you can train them

First, catch your judge ...

Two interesting items appeared in this blogger's in-box this week.  The first was an announcement, reproduced in full below, on the first training course for Europe's new generation of patent judges:

Please be kindly informed that the Hungarian Ministry of Public Administration and Justice and the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office, in cooperation with the European Patent Office, jointly organise a conference on the training of the Unified Patent Court’s judges. The conference will take place in conjunction with the inauguration of the building of the Training Centre in Budapest. 

When? 13-14 March 2014 

Please save these dates in your calendar of next year. 

We will keep you updated on the programme and further details of the event. 

UPC Training Conference Team 

Hungarian Intellectual Property Office http://www.hipo.gov.hu/English/

The second was a link to Miguel Montana's post on the Kluwer Patent Blog to the effect that, of the 1,300 applicants for consideration as judges for the new Unified Patent Court, not a single soul was eligible.

Readers are invited to draw their own conclusions.