Last Friday, the first Dutch Bench Bar Meeting was held in Amsterdam
The Dutch UPC Bench Bar Meeting is a periodic gathering for all UPC representatives from any country, organized by a consortium of leading Dutch law firms in collaboration with UPC judges from the UPC Local Division The Hague. The meeting is designed to foster knowledge exchange within the UPC community.
The launch proved to be a success, with around 100 participants attending the event in person and online.
The theme of the meeting was: ‘Best practices for FRAND Proceedings within the UPC’. After an introductory presentation by Oscar Lamme, a panel discussion was held with judges from the UPC Local Division The Hague Margot Kokke and Edger Brinkman. The panel also included UPC representatives Tjibbe Douma, Roeland Grijpink and Daan de Lange.
Chatham House Rules applied to the meeting to encourage an open exchange of views.
Topics discussed included whether, and if so, how the FRAND discussion should be separated from the technical validity and infringement debate, the disclosure of licenses, the associated confidentiality issues and the timing thereof, and the desire for active case management.
After a lively discussion, the participants only agreed on the need for active case management and the desire for separation of FRAND issues (though there was no agreement on which should be addressed first), leading to the conclusion that many questions remain to be resolved in the future.
