Preparations for Mediation and Arbitration Centre reach next stage

The PMAC in Ljubljana is the only part of the UPC court system to have not yet started its work. In early summer, the UPC member states represented on the Administrative Committee intensified the preparations. The committee appointed the Slovenian Aleš Zalar as the centre’s new director in September.

Now, the Administrative Committee has appointed 11 members to the expert committee. These experts are to support Zalar in establishing a list of arbitrators and mediators, as well as proposing appropriate amendments to the centre’s rules.

Multiple nationalities

The experts all come from different UPC countries. Only Italy accounts for two experts, Pierfrancesco Fasano and Cristiano Bacchini. Fasano is a partner at Aria Grace Law and has also been active in mediation and arbitration at various institutions for years. Bacchini is a founding partner of BMLex and works in IP law. He has also worked as coordinator of the Commission for Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law at the Milan Bar Association since 2023.

The German influence on the expert committee is rather low compared to other UPC institutions or committees, as the sole German member is Thomas Klippstein. Klippstein is a former judge and employee of the Federal Ministry of Justice, but also an arbitrator at the German Institution of Arbitration (DIS).

The best-known patent lawyer among the experts is likely the Dutch native Simon Dack. He was a partner at Hoyng ROKH Monegier for many years and a well-known litigator for pharmaceutical disputes in the Netherlands. He left the firm in 2023.

Håkan Borgenhäll has been a partner at Vinge in Stockholm since 2013, where works in patent law. French member Malik Chapuis is a judge at the Tribunal judiciaire de Paris and is active in patent cases.

The other members of the expert committee come from the smaller UPC member states. Petra Asperger is head of a nullity division at the Austrian Patent Office. Gordana Ristin is a judge at the Court of Appeal in Ljubljana.

Lina Mickiene has been deputy director of the Lithuanian Patent Office since 2008. Vitor Palmela Fidalgo from Portugal is an arbitrator at ARBITRARE, legal director at Inventa and PR professor at the University of Lisbon. Maija Tipaine from Latvia works at COBALT Legal in Riga and specialises in litigation and arbitration.

Future blueprint

In September, further details emerged about how the UPC envisions the PMAC in the future. At the Munich IP Forum, UPC presidium member Peter Tochtermann said, above all, it should operate independently of the UPC divisions and there should be no influence or even exchange of information between the UPC divisions and the PMAC.

Tochtermann also said the centre will not need to generate any profit. The PMAC is to have its own budget and will be managed independently by Aleš Zalar. The PMAC director will only report to the presidium. Zalar, who took up his post as director in September 2024, must also draw up the Rules of Procedure for the new centre and prepare his proposal for the centre’s fees.