The London Section of the Central Division of the Unified Patent Court

As has been discussed, Article 7 of the Unified Patent Court Agreement states that the Central Division shall have its seat in Paris with sections in Munich and London. After Brexit, the United Kingdom withdrew from the Unified Patent Court (UPC) and the UPC needed to relocate the London Section.

On 18 May 2023 it was announced that the London section of the Central Division will be hosted in Milan. The Milan Central Division seat will be operational within one year, but will not be ready for the UPC’s June 1 opening. 

Further, at this time the competency, that is the technical areas addressed at this Milan seat, have not been set yet.  The London seat had been given competency over inventions in the pharmaceutical space.  This competency has not been definitively provided to the Milan seat.

In any case, until the Milan seat is ready to hear cases, the Paris and Munich seats of the Central Division will initially share all cases being sent to the Central Division.