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?)

Breaking News: Protocol to the UPC Agreement In Force

The News of the day comes from the UPC preparatory committee:

Today, October 1st 2015, a protocol to the UPC Agreement has been signed by representatives of member states in the margins on the Competitiveness Council meeting. This protocol will allow some parts of the UPC Agreement to be applied early. This includes final decisions on the practical set up of the Court, for example, the recruitment of judges and testing of IT systems. The provisional application phase will also be used to allow for early registration of opt-out demands.

This is the latest step towards bringing the Unified Patent Court into operation. In practice there is no immediate impact on business, however, the Preparatory Committee aims to complete its work by June 2016 with a view to the UPC opening at the start of 2017.

A copy of the protocol is available.

UPC Roadmap updated

Anglo-German law firm Taylor Wessing has just published an updated version of its Roadmap for the UPC is published. According to the rubric on the firm's website:

The Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court has published a September 2014 update on the progress of its work towards the opening of the court. The key milestones in the update are:

The Committee will continue to work on the basis that "the Court will not be ready before the end of 2015", although it acknowledges that this is "ambitious";

Following a hearing of user organisations in November 2014 and then further review, the Committee expects there to be agreement on the Rules of Procedure in May 2015;

A draft schedule of court fees – fixed fee, and calculation method for value based fees in matters above the defined ceiling of the fixed fee – is being considered by the Finance Group. A second draft is expected to be discussed at the beginning of 2015;

A revised draft of the rules on the litigation certificate for patent attorneys is expected in early 2015;

The procurement process for the electronic filing and case management system of the UPC is expected to take place in autumn 2014. Development and testing of this system is expected to be finalised by the last quarter of 2015;

Work on the number and qualifications of local staff is due to be finalised in March 2015;

A provisional list of legally and technically qualified judges has been approved by the Preparatory Committee. The first training programmes for those judges deemed to require training will begin in December 2014. The Committee aims to appoint a sufficient number of part-time and full-time judges before the entry into operation of the UPC and to create a reserve list of judges who could be appointed should the case law increase more than expected.

The six-page document, which you can read here, has a handy list of 13 tasks completed by the Regulatory Committee over the past 12 months. Some of these tasks are not particularly onerous or significant, but there is a certain pleasure in placing little ticks next to activities that have been dealt with.

Our good friend and occasional contributor both to this blog and to the IPKat, Paul England, is the person to contact if you want any further information.