Article 9

The Court of Appeal

1.   Any panel of the Court of Appeal shall sit in a multinational composition of five judges. It shall sit in a composition of three legally qualified judges who are nationals of different Contracting Member States and two technically qualified judges with qualifications and experience in the field of technology concerned. Those technically qualified judges shall be assigned to the panel by the President of the Court of Appeal from the pool of judges in accordance with Article 18.

2.   Notwithstanding paragraph 1, a panel dealing with actions under Article 32(1)(i) shall sit in a composition of three legally qualified judges who are nationals of different Contracting Member States.

3.   Any panel of the Court of Appeal shall be chaired by a legally qualified judge.

4.   The panels of the Court of Appeal shall be set up in accordance with the Statute.

5.   The Court of Appeal shall have its seat in Luxembourg.

Case Law:

IPPT20240528, UPC CoA, Carrier v BITZER Electronics
Panel of three legally qualified judges (Article 9 UPCA). No reason for the Court of Appeal to depart from its case law that an appeal may be adjudicated by a panel of three legally qualified judges if the subject matter of the appeal proceedings is of a non-technical nature only and there are no technical issues at stake. No ground for requesting the CJEU to issue a preliminary ruling on the question of whether the Court of Appeal can determine its own composition.

IPPT20240410, UPC CoA, Ocado v Autostore
Composition of the panel of the Court of Appeal. When an appeal does not concern a field of technology, the Court of Appeal does not have to assign technically qualified judges (in the field of technology concerned) (Article 9 UPCA). 

IPPT20231218, UPC CoA, OPPO v Panasonic 

IPPT20231219, UPC CoA, OPPO v Panasonic

IPPT20231220, UPC CoA, OPPO v Panasonic
Procedural order requests where no technical issues are at hand, can be adjudicated by three legally qualified judges of the Court of Appeal (Article 9 UPCA). Consistent with the logic underlying the composition of panels of the Court of First Instance; Ensures cost effectiveness of proceedings and efficiency, thus ensuring expeditious decisions; In conformity with principles of proportionality, flexibility, fairness and equity.