MUNICH CENTRAL DIVISION Law and Practice Contributed by: Julia Traumann and Ulrich Blumenröder, Grünecker
(referred to as “LD Munich”). Judge Voß brings a wealth of experience to the UPC, having previ - ously served as presiding judge of the 4b Civil Chamber (one of the patent litigation chambers) at the District Court Düsseldorf, and later of the 15th Civil Senate (one of the then-two patent senates) at the Court of Appeals Düsseldorf. She is widely recognised for her structured and effi - cient conduct of hearings, as well as her ability to manage technically complex cases with clar - ity and precision. Other legally qualified judges appointed to the CD Munich include Judge Mélanie Bessaud from France and Judge András Kupecz from The Netherlands. Judge Bessaud was appointed a French judge in 2005 and spent several years as a civil judge in intellectual and industrial prop - erty matters, dealing with patents, trademarks, industrial designs, models and unfair competi - tion at the Paris Court of First Instance, which has exclusive jurisdiction over patents. Since 2020, she has been an arbitrator at the commer - cial chamber of the Court of Cassation, where she dealt with patents and supplementary pro - tection certificates (SPCs). Judge Kupecz holds an LLM in private law from Amsterdam Univer - sity and an MSc from Utrecht University with a focus on molecular biology. Before becoming a UPC judge, he was active as a European patent litigator in private practice, dually qualified as a lawyer and a European patent attorney. That makes him one of the few UPC judges who has had their focus on the other side of the bench. 1.3 Specific Procedural Issues Procedural issues in the CD Munich follow the UPC’s Rules of Procedure (RoP), and no spe - cific procedural issues have been noted in this regard.
Case opening is primarily managed through the UPC’s case management system (CMS). In exceptional circumstances – such as techni - cal failures – documents may be lodged in hard copy at the relevant registry or sub-registry (Rule 4.2 RoP; see Amgen v Sanofi, UPC_CFI_1/2023, order delivered on 24 August 2023). Service of process is governed by Rules 270 to 275 RoP. The presiding judge of the CD Munich has issued an “Order for the organisation of oral hearings” (Rule 111 RoP), effective from 14 May 2024. The order sets out the procedures for conduct - ing oral hearings at the CD Munich. Hearings are generally held in person, although remote participation via videoconference may be per - mitted. As a rule, hearings are open to the public unless a decision is made to exclude the public in specific cases. Video and audio recordings, as well as live streaming of the hearings, are strictly prohibited. 1.4 Regional Division Competence There is no applicable information in this juris - diction. 1.5 Central Division Competence The Central Division of the UPC is divided into three sections (whereby Paris serves as the seat), each tasked with handling cases related to spe - cific fields of technology, as classified under the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) International Patent Classification (IPC) sections. Following the opening of the Milan Section on 27 June 2024 – replacing the originally designated London Section – the allocation of cases within the Central Division is governed by Annex II of the UPCA, as amended by Article 1 (2) of the Administrative Committee’s decision of 26 June 2023.
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