The UPC after eight months: achievements and challenges?

Rian KALDEN (The Netherlands)

Rian Kalden graduated at Leiden University and finished a Master (including Intellectual and Industrial Property law at LSE) at Londen University. She started her career joining the Amsterdam Bar with the law firm Stibbe, where she practised for almost 11 years. There she first joined the intellectual property department and turned to company law (focussing on mergers and acquisitions) later on.

In 2002 she was appointed judge at the District Court of The Hague, where she joined the Patent Chamber. After a short period in the criminal division at the District Court of Haarlem, where she was appointed Vice President in 2007, she returned to the Intellectual Property Division of the District Court of The Hague mid-2008, from 2009 as head of the Division, where she dealt with all kinds of IP cases, but mainly patent cases. 

In September 2013 Rian Kalden was appointed judge in The Court of Appeal of The Hague. She headed the Division that also covers all IP cases for 5 years and as a Senior Judge she primarily dealt with patent cases until she left the The Hague Appeal Court in September 2023 to become a full time UPC judge.

In July 2018 Rian Kalden was appointed Judge at the Benelux Court of Justice, where appeals from decisions of the Benelux trademark offices are heard. In 2023 she resigned, in view of her appointment as legally qualified judge at the Court of Appeal of the Unified Patent Court as from June 2023, where she is Presiding Judge of the second panel. Rian Kalden is also member of the Presidium of the UPC. She regularly speaks at national and international conferences on Patent law and related issues.