Another major step has been taken by the UPC Administrative Committee (AC) in announcing the initial appointment of 85 judges (34 legally qualified judges and 51 technically qualified judges).
Confirmed are the compositions of the Court of Appeal and Court of First Instance (Central Division, Local Divisions and the Nordic-Baltic Regional Division), as well as the technically qualified technical judges (Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmaceuticals, Electricity, Mechanical Engineering and Physics).
The list of judges also appears to indicate that further recruitments are to be made in the seat of the Central Division in Paris, as well as the section of the Central Division in Munich.
The current AC provisional timeline estimates a start date of 1 April 2023. A ‘sunrise period’, during which Patentees and applicants can opt out European patents and applications (but not Unitary Patents) from the UPC system prior to commencement, is expected to be from 1 January 2023.
The full list of judges can be found here
The UPC current provisional timeline can be viewed here
