MANNHEIM LOCAL DIVISION Law and Practice Contributed by: Tobias J Hessel and Leonie Jüngels, Clifford Chance
1. General Information 1.1 Basic Information
judge at the Regional Court of Mannheim. He was also elected to the presidium of the UPC; • Dirk Böttcher is judge at the Local Division of Mannheim and former presiding judge at the Regional Court of Mannheim, 14th Civil Chamber (patent and antitrust chamber), and has been a member of the judiciary since 2012 – he moved to the UPC full time in Feb - ruary of 2025; • Dr Holger Kircher is judge at the Local Divi - sion of Mannheim and presiding judge at the Regional Court of Mannheim, 2nd Civil Chamber (trade mark, knowhow, copyright, unfair competition law, etc), and has been a member of the judiciary since 1992. The Mannheim Local Division has one cham - ber. Judge Tochtermann sits with either Judge Böttcher or Judge Kircher. It is anticipated that, in future, most cases before the Mannheim Local Division will be heard by a panel compris - ing Judge Tochtermann, Judge Böttcher and a foreign judge. Thanks to their many years of experience in patent infringement proceedings at the Regional Court of Mannheim, all three judges are highly qualified to hear UPC cases. The trust placed in them because of their work at the Regional Court of Mannheim remains unchanged in UPC cases. They have played a significant role in establishing Mannheim’s repu - tation as a leading court for patent matters. The expertise of the technically qualified judges (TQJs) at the Local Division of Mannheim makes them exceptionally well-suited for handling com - plex technical matters. Their profound under - standing of technical issues ensures that cases are assessed with a high level of competence and precision. The firm has consistently had positive experiences with the legally and tech - nically qualified judges at the Local Division of Mannheim, and this positive experience reinforc -
The Local Division of Mannheim is located at Schubertstraße 11, 68165 Mannheim. The administrative office can be contacted via e-mail (contact_mannheim.loc@unifiedpatentcourt.org) or phone (+49 621 292 4697/4235/4696). The opening hours are 9am to 6.30pm from Monday to Friday, and the public holidays are as follows: • New Year’s Day ( Neujahr ) – January 1st; • Good Friday ( Karfreitag ) – in March or April; • Easter Monday ( Ostermontag ) – in March or April; • Labour Day ( Tag der Arbeit ) – May 1st; • Ascension Day ( Christi Himmelfahrt ) – 39 days after Easter; • Whit Monday ( Pfingstmontag ) – seven weeks after Easter; • Corpus Christi ( Fronleichnam ) – 60 days after Easter; • Day of German Unity ( Tag der Deutschen Einheit ) – October 3rd; • All Saints’ Day ( Allerheiligen ) – November 1st; • Christmas Day ( Weihnachtstag ) – December 25th; and • Boxing Day ( Weihnachtstag ) – December 26th. 1.2 UPC Judges The judges assigned to the Unified Patent Court (UPC) division in this jurisdiction are as follows. • Dr Peter Tochtermann, Dirk Böttcher and Dr Holger Kircher are currently serving as perma - nent judges in the Mannheim Local Division; • Dr Peter Tochtermann is presiding judge at the Local Division of Mannheim and former
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