On 1 and 2 June, the official opening of the Patent Mediation and Arbitration Centre (PMAC) of the Unified Patent Court took place in Ljubljana.
Attorney-at-law Lyubka Vasileva-Karapanova attended the event in her capacity as a PMAC mediator.

PMAC is an integral part of the Unified Patent Court system and aims to provide effective alternative dispute resolution mechanisms for patent disputes and related intellectual property and commercial matters.

The Centre offers mediation, arbitration, expert determination and hybrid procedures, with particular focus on complex international patent disputes and SEP/FRAND disputes (involving Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) and Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms).

The mediators, arbitrators and experts of the Centre have been selected from among established professionals in the fields of intellectual property and alternative dispute resolution from jurisdictions across the world.

One of PMAC’s distinctive features is its close connection with the Unified Patent Court, which creates the possibility for settlement agreements reached through mediation to be endorsed by the Court and acquire the effect of a court decision.

The opening of the Centre marks an important step in the development of alternative dispute resolution in the field of intellectual property at the European level.

The event brought together representatives of European institutions, judges of the Unified Patent Court, representatives of the European Patent Office, legal practitioners and ADR professionals from across Europe and beyond. Among the official guests were the President of the Republic of Slovenia, the President of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the President of the Court of Appeal of the Unified Patent Court and the President of the European Patent Office.