According to last news the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (GB) will possibly ratify the UPC Agreement in October 2017 and, hopefully, the Federal Republic of Germany (DE) will ratify the Agreement immediately after GB.
Therefore UPC will start at the end of 2017 or at the beginning of 2018.
According to this time schedule it seems obvious that the section of the Central Division provided for Human necessities, Chemistry and metallurgy cannot be located in LONDON.
As a matter of fact according to the “GUIDELINES FOLLOWING THE UNITED KINGDOM’S NOTIFICATION UNDER ARTICLE 50 TEU” :
– The two year timeframe set out in Article 50 TEU ends on 29 March 2019. And
– …While the future location of the seats of EU agencies and facilities located in the United Kingdom is a matter for the 27 Member States to settle rapidly, arrangements should be found to facilitate their transfer.
In summary it seems apparent that arrangements should be found in the EU Member States in order to avoid to open a seat in LONDON for not more that 12 to 15 months.
Moreover it seems apparent that negotiations among EU Member States about the transfer of the above section of the Central Division from LONDON to another EU location need to be started at least on or before October or November 2017.
Italy in the next few months will be engaged in a political situation of instability due to the necessity to have a new electoral law and, possibly, new elections.
As a matter of fact the results of the October 2016 Italian referendum require to the Parliament to find new solutions about the electoral law and a change of Prime Minister in a relative short time.
Therefore Italy will not be able to strongly support, as requested at least by the Italian Patent Attorneys, the transfer of the above section of the Central Division from LONDON to MILAN.
This inability of Italy will give the opportunity to other Countries to actively negotiate to transfer the section, for instance, from LONDON to DEN HAG or even PARIS.
My personal opinion is that Italy should need a strong Government and/or Prime Minister in order to manage negotiations that, at present, seem a necessary step after the possible too late GB ratification of the UPC Agreement.
DELPHI oraculum