Unified Patent Court

UPC Administrative Committee publishes final judges list

The UPC Administrative Committee has announced the total list of its 85 judges, including 34 legally qualified and 51 technically qualified individuals. In doing so, the committee has clarified one of the most important questions in the preparation for the new court. Klaus Grabinski will lead as president of the Court of Appeal, while Florence Butin takes on the role of president of the Court of First Instance.

19 October 2022 by Mathieu Klos

After months of speculations, the UPC Administrative Committee has finally announced its list of legally and technically qualified judges ©JUVE Verlag

Patent experts in every jurisdiction have eagerly awaited the Administrative Committee’s publication of the final Unified Patent Court judges list. Experts from law firms and companies want to see as many individuals with experience in patent litigation as possible presiding over UPC cases. After all, it is expected that the judges will manage the proceedings competently while delivering strong judgments.

Now the UPC Administrative Committee has announced the names of 34 legal and 51 technical judges, the majority of whom are very familiar with patent litigation.

UPC announcement

Among the names are such well-known patent greats as Ulrike Voß, Klaus Grabinski and Matthias Zigann from Germany, Rian Kalden and Edger Brinkman from the Netherlands, and Florence Butin and and Mélanie Bessaud from France. In addition, many others on the list already preside over patent cases at specialised patent courts in UPC member states. Some also work for the Boards of Appeal at the European Patent Office.

Furthermore, the UPC has clarified that the court will be led by Klaus Grabinski as president of the Court of Appeal, and by Florence Butin as president of the Court of First Instance. Two Court of Appeal judges, Rian Kalden and Ms Ingeborg Simonsson, and three judges from the Court of First Instance, Camille Lignieres, Ronny Thomas and Peter Tochtermann complete the Presidium. Additionally, the committee has elected Rian Kalden as presiding judge of the second panel of the Court of Appeal.

According to the announcement, the Presidium will take up its duties in advance of the start of operations of the court.

The full list is as follows:

UPC legally qualified judges

UPC Court of Appeal

Klaus Grabinski

Patricia Rombach

Françoise Barutel

Peter Blok

Rian Kalden

Emanuela Germano

Ingeborg Simonsson

 

UPC Central Division Courts of First Instance

Central Division, Paris

Florence Butin

Paolo Catallozzi

Maximilian Haedicke

Tatyana Zhilova

Plus one post to be filled before start of UPC operations

 

Central Division, Munich

Mélanie Bessaud

Ulrike Voß

Plus one post to be filled before start of UPC operations

 

UPC local divisions, Courts of First Instance

Local division, Vienna

Walter Schober

 

Local division, Brussels

Samuel Granata

 

Local division, Copenhagen

Post to be filled before start of UPC operations

 

Local division, Helsinki

Petri Rinkinen

 

Local division, Paris

Carine Gillet

Camille Lignieres

 

Local division, Düsseldorf

Bérénice Thom

Ronny Thomas

 

Local division, Hamburg

Sabine Klepsch

Stefan Schilling

 

Local division, Mannheim

Holger Kircher

Peter Michael Tochtermann

 

Local division, Munich

Tobias Pichlmaier

Matthias Zigann

Local division, Milan

Pierluigi Perrotti

Alima Zana

 

Local division, The Hague

Edger Brinkman

Margot Kokke

 

Local division, Lisbon

Rute Lopes

 

Local division, Ljubljana

Mojca Mlakar

 

Nordic-Baltic Regional Division (EE, LT, LV, SE):

Kai Härmand

Stefan Johansson

 

UPC technically qualified judges

Biotechnology

Arwed Andreas Burrichter

Eric Enderlin

Rainer Friedrich

Paolo Gerli

Krister Karlsson

András Kupecz

Roman Maksymiw

Cornelis Schüller

 

Chemistry and pharmaceutics

Michael Alt

Kirsikka Etuaho

Renaud Fulconis

Rudi Goedeweeck

John Meidahl Petersen

Stefanie Parchmann

Laure Sarlin

Casper Struve

Steen Wadskov-Hansen

Carola Wagner

 

Electricity

Pascal Attali

Eric Augarde

Bertrand Cochet (take up of duties as of 1 Nov 2023)

Grégoire Desrousseaux

Alain Dumont

Dennis Kretschmann

Alessandro Sanchini

Andrea Scilletta

Simon Walker

 

Mechanical engineering

Michel Abello

Uwe Ausfelder

Koen Callewaert

Giorgio Checcacci

Paolo Ernesto Crippa

Claus Elmeros

Frédéric Gaillarde

Bernard Christiaan Ledeboer

Elisabetta Papa

Martin Schmidt

Uwe Schwengelbeck

Max Tilmann

Marie-Paule Vandeberg

Patrice Vidon

Pascal Lucien Pierre Weber

Stefan Wilhelm

 

Physics

Michael Fleuchaus

Anders Max Hansson

Ulrike Keltsch

Gérard Myon

Dörte Otten-Dünnweber

Andrea Perronace

Christoph Dominik Schober

Patrik Rydman

 

Start in early 2023

According to the Administrative Committee’s current plan, the UPC will start its work at the end of the first quarter of 2023. At that time, those appointed will deliver justice at the local and regional chambers in the member states. Some will also preside over the central court in Paris and Munich, respectively.

While five judges will staff the Court of Appeal in Luxembourg, only a few will be employed full-time. The majority of UPC judges will work part-time, equal to around 50% or 20% of their work time. (Co-author: Amy Sandys)