Last night the Unified Patent Court (UPC) published its long-awaited list of judge appointments for the new court system. The list does not only include the names of the judges of all first instance local and central decisions and for the second instance Court of Appeal, but also announces the Presidium of the new court system.
The Presidium of the new UPC will be led by Dr. Klaus Grabinski, currently judge at the German Federal Supreme Court, and by French judge Ms. Florence Butin. Dr. Klaus Grabinski will also be President of the Court of Appeal located in Luxembourg whereas Ms. Florence Butin will become President of the decentralized Court of First Instance.
In total 85 judges were appointed including 34 legally qualified judges and 51 technical judges. In line with the mission of the court, the judges come from a multitude of participating member states.
The full list of judges can be found here.
The list includes various of the judges which are currently considered to be leading judges for patent matters in the respective participating member states which suggests that users may expect a rather high quality of judgments.
With this further important step being taken now, the UPC now seems firmly on track for a start in the second quarter of 2023.
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