Decision on the provisional distribution of actions related to patents in IPC sections (A) and (C) pending before the central division

In its meeting of 8 May 2023, the Presidium of the Unified Patent Court decided that, as from 1 June 2023, actions pending before the central division related to patents in IPC section (A) shall be assigned to the seat in Paris while actions related to patents in IPC section (C) shall be assigned to the section in Munich.

The wording of Article 7(2) of the UPC Agreement provides that actions pending before the central division related to these two IPC sections shall be assigned to a section to be located in London. However, after the United Kingdom withdrew its ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court on 20 July 2020, the Preparatory Committee interpreted Article 7(2) of the UPCA and Annex II thereof, with regard to the allocation of cases to a section of the Central Division in London as having no effect and that the competence for these cases can be dealt with provisionally until a final decision is taken on the creation of another section of the central division. Having also taken into consideration that the Administrative Committee has not yet reached such a final decision and the Agreement will enter into force on 1 June 2023, the Presidium has exercised its managerial power under Article 15(3) of the Statute of the Unified Patent Court in the aforementioned sense.