The Code of Conduct for UPC judges is now available on the website of the Unified Patent Court.
A few highlights:
- a legally qualified judge, as well as a technically qualified judge who is a full-time judge of the Court may not engage in any other occupation, whether gainful of not, unless an exception is granted by the Administrative Committee. (Art. 4 §2)
- the exercise of the office of a technically qualified judge who is a part-time judge of the Court shall not exclude the exercise of other functions provided there is no conflict of interest. In order to maintain confidence in the independence and impartiality of the court, to allow judges to work together in a spirit of mutual trust and to avoid potential conflicts of interest, the judge may not act as a representative before the Court, as provided for in Article 48 of the Agreement, in any matter, and may not give legal or technical advice in any capacity on a case pending before the Court or after being instructed to prepare therefor. (Art. 4 §3)
Basically this means that technically qualified judges, even part-time, may not act as representative before the UPC.