CIPA President writes to UPC Court of Appeal in defence of the representation rights of in-house counsel

CIPA President Dr Bobby Mukherjee has today (24 January) sent an open letter to the Unified Patent Court’s Court of Appeal judges setting out the case for in-house counsel to retain full rights of audience and participation as UPC representatives.

The letter, to Judge Grabinski (Court of Appeal presiding judge), Judge Gougé and Judge Blok, relates to a UPC Court of First Instance decision in the Suinno Mobile & AI Technologies Licensing Oy v Microsoft Corporation case, which, if upheld, would prevent patent attorneys working in industry from being able to represent their employers before the court. The Court of Appeal hearing is scheduled for 29 January 2025.

The letter gives an overview of the regulatory framework governing CIPA-registered in-house patent attorneys, highlighting the relevance of and importance to their rights of representation before the UPC system. Dr Mukherjee went on to say:

‘For many companies, the ability to utilise their in-house intellectual property team, including patent attorneys registered as UPC Representatives is an important part of their strategy regarding the UPC system.

As set out above, all EPAs who are CIPA registered are held to the highest standards of conduct before any Court or tribunal and attract legal professional privilege.

Accordingly, CIPA would be concerned if such patent attorneys were precluded from full rights and participation as UPC representative, based purely on their employment in industry.’

Dr Mukherjee said that CIPA fully supported a letter sent by the IP Federation on the same issue, sent to Judge Grabinski on 16 January.

Download Dr Mukherjee’s full letter.

Date published: 24 January 2025