UPC CoA, 11 February 2025: Representation before the UPC requires distance and indepedence
08-03-2025 Print this page
Acting as a representative (Article 48 UPCA) of a legal person not possible for a corporate representative of a legal person, or any other natural person who has extensive administrative and financial powers within the legal person.
If the party is a natural person, the representation requirement under Art. 48(1) and (2) UPCA implies that this person is not entitled to represent him or herself.
This understanding is based on the term “representation” used in Art. 48(1) and (2) UPCA and the concept of rights and immunities of representatives. Independent representation. One of the objectives of parties being represented by a lawyer is, among other things, to ensure that legal persons are defended by a representative who is sufficiently distant from the legal person which he or she represents.
The independent exercise of the duties of a representative is not undermined by the mere fact that the lawyer or the European patent attorney, qualified as a representative under Art. 48(1) or (2) UPCA, is employed by the party he or she represents. A representative who is employed by a party must also act towards the Court as an independent counsellor by serving the interests of his or her clients in an unbiased manner without regard to his or her personal feelings or interests.
