UPC reshuffles local division Mannheim

Highly regarded German judge Holger Kircher was one of the very first UPC judges. However, he only worked for the court 20% of the time. He spent the remaining 80% of his time working nationally — initially at the 2nd Civil Chamber of Mannheim Regional Court.

Holger Kircher

In mid-July, Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court appointed Kircher as the new presiding judge of the 6th Civil Senate. This senate handles all appeals in patent cases dealt with by Mannheim Regional Court.

More capacities for local division

As the UPC announced yesterday, Kircher’s successor at the Mannheim local division is Tobias Sender. Sender is currently a judge at the 2nd Civil Chamber of the Mannheim Regional Court — the chamber that Kircher presided over for many years.

Sender has not appeared as prominently in patent cases as his predecessor but he has had a long career as a patent judge in Mannheim. In addition to his many years of service at the Regional Court Mannheim, he also worked on the Patent Senate at the Higher Regional Court Karlsruhe for a time.

Like many German patent judges, Sender also spent time as a research assistant at the 10th Civil Senate of the Federal Court of Justice, the highest instance in German patent cases.

Now, according to JUVE Patent sources, he will join the UPC full-time in September. This will significantly increase the local division’s capacity by 80%.

The division will then operate with two panels: one consisting of Peter Tochtermann as presiding judge alongside Tobias Sender, and the other consisting of Tochtermann and Dirk Boettcher. All three judges work full time for the UPC.

The increase in capacity was likely necessary because, according to the latest official statistics, the local division has 52 infringement and three preliminary injunction cases. These include a particularly large number of lawsuits concerning mobile communications and streaming patents with FRAND aspects, for example Samsung vs ZTE, NEC vs Hisense, Huawei vs HMD, and InterDigital vs Disney.

Autumn of new appointments

Sender’s appointment to the UPC is just the beginning of a series of new UPC judge hires. In July, the UPC’s Administrative Committee approved three new judgeships to create a 3rd panel for the Court of Appeal.

The new judges could either come to the UPC from elsewhere or via promotion from the first instance. In the latter case, those positions would then require successors. Officials will likely announce the new judges in September.

Meanwhile, the position of presiding judge of the 2nd Civil Chamber at Mannheim Regional Court remains vacant. After Kircher moved to the Higher Regional Court and now Sender to the UPC, the court must fill two positions.

Currently the 2nd and 14th Civil Chambers hear patent cases in Mannheim. The court has recently seen a decline in case numbers due to the UPC.