Italy, France and Germany have agreed on and proposed a division of the competences that were originally designated to London, between the three seats of the UPC central division in Milan, Paris and Munich. Milan could start taking cases around July next year.
According to the proposal of the three member states, Milan will be competent for IPC Section A patents (human necessities), the Munich section also be competent for IPC Section C patents (chemistry and metallurgy) and the Paris seat for SPCs from Sections A and C. In other words, it looks like the competences will be divided as rumoured over the last months. Organizations in Italy had earlier qualified this division as ‘unacceptable’, but apparently Milan and Italy have given in.
Italy, France and Germany presented the ‘outcome of their trilateral discussions regarding a permanent solution on Article 7 (2) UPCA and Annex II of the Agreement in which the reference to London has become obsolete after Brexit’ during a meeting of the Administrative Committee on 2 June 2023. Read more