Who is the Preparatory Committee and what is its function?
The Preparatory Committee is composed of all the Signatory States to the Unified Patent Court Agreement document 16351/12, of 11.01.2013. Poland, the European Commission and the EPO have observer status. Its objective is to prepare for the establishment of the UPC in order for it to be operational once the UPC Agreement enters into force. The Preparatory Committee will exist until the Court is established. Currently this is expected to last two years and during this time it has its own rules by which it is governed. You can find the rules here. Its work programme is set out in a Roadmap.
The Preparatory Committee has identified five major work streams; Legal Framework, Financial Aspects, Human Resources/Training, IT and Facilities. Each work stream has been assigned to a specific working group which have been given the task of preparing proposals to the Committee where all decisions are taken.
The Preparatory Committee is chaired by Mr Alexander Ramsay -from Sweden who is assisted by the vice-Chairman, Louise Akerblom -from Luxembourg- and the Head of Secretariat Eileen Tottie -from the United Kingdom.