The Italian Minister of justice Carlo Nordio spoke yesterday about the negotiations between Italy, France and Germany concerning Milan’s bid to host the third central division of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), during the presentation event “The new Unitary Patent system: ready to go” organised by the Milan Bar Association.

Mr. Nordio confirmed that negotiations were still ongoing and he was therefore unable to disclose details.

The minister’s speech was optimistic about the central division being assigned to Milan; while pointing out that the resistence against transferring to Milan all the competencies originally assigned to London is strong, and that the Italian negotiators are under extraordinary pressure regarding this specific issue, Mr. Nordio said that he and his team intend to stand their ground just as vigorously.

More than one of the legal experts speaking at the event warned of the practical difficulties, legal uncertainty and confusion that would be caused by fragmenting the competencies originally assigned by the UPC Agreement to its third central division.

The event was co-organised and supported by many local and national institutions, including the Italian Industrial Property Consultants Institute. The UPC’s administrative bodies were represented by Paul van Beukering (Deputy Chair of the Administrative Committee) and Alexander Ramsay (First Registrar).

Many outstanding experts and several UPC judges contributed to the event’s two technical sessions, including Klaus Grabinsky and Ingeborg Simonsson, President and judge of the UPC Court of Appeal respectively. Elisabetta Papa and Andrea Scilletta spoke as UPC technical judges.