Unified Patent Court appoints new technically qualified judges

Christian Daniel, Dorothea Hofer, Simon Stephan Michels and Lorenzo Parrini are the new technically qualified judges at the UPC. They will be sworn in at the beginning of June. Two weeks ago, the court also announced the appointment of Kristian Jauregui Urbahn as technically qualified judge.

All five new judges will be assigned to the physics field. With 22 technically qualified judges, physics is already the most heavily staffed area. Mechanical engineering is also well staffed, with 21 technically qualified judges. Michels and Parrini will also rule on cases involving mechanical engineering patents in addition to physics.

Three Germans, one French, one Italian

While Urbahn is from France and Parrini from Italy, the other three are German.

Dorothea Hofer currently works as a partner at Munich patent attorney firm Prüfer & Partner. Simon Stephan Michels also works in Munich as a partner at Stellbrink & Partner. The IP-firm is a former spin-off of Vossius & Partner.

Christian Daniel’s LinkedIn profile states he is a former examiner at the European Patent Office. He retired from this position in summer 2023.

According to publicly available information, Parrini currently works as an in-house patent attorney in Switzerland at Philip Morris. He is also a technical judge at the Swiss Federal Patent Court. Kristian Jauregui Urbahn currently works in Germany. The EPO register lists him as a patent attorney at automotive supplier Valeo. He is thus another in-house representative to serve as a technically qualified judge at the UPC. The UPC has not yet confirmed the information concerning Daniel, Urbahn and Parrini.

With the five new appointments, the number of technically qualified judges at the UPC now stands at 80. The court is thus continuing its trend of appointing TQJs who work primarily as in-house lawyers or in private practice.

This year the UPC has already announced two new legally qualified and six technically qualified judges. Meanwhile, French patent attorney Patrice Vidon has decided to step down from his position as TQJ.

The UPC Administrative Committee announced its plans to increase judge capacities in its budget for 2025. Furthermore, several judges are currently increasing their working hours at the UPC.