CEIPI (the Centre for International IP Studies, University of Strasbourg), in collaboration with INPI (the French IP Office), is providing a 6 day training programme for technically qualified judges of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) on 22-24 September and 20-22 October 2016.  CNCPI (the French Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys Institute) has recently advertised the training, noting that “Recent developments in the United Kingdom have not stopped the preparations and the setting up of the Court, and the selection process continues.”   The closing date for applications for the positions of technically qualified UPC judges (and legally qualified UPC judges) was 4 July 2016, and the UPC Advisory Committee is due to select candidates for interview at the end of 2016; the information for applicants stated that “if you are taking part in the training at the Training Centre in Budapest or at the Centre d’Études Internationales de la Propriété Intellectuelle (CEIPI), you agree that the Advisory Committee can contact the trainers in order to get feedback on your candidacy.”  The UPC Agreement provides that technically qualified judges must have a university degree, proven expertise in a field of technology, proven knowledge of civil law and procedure relevant in patent litigation, and proven experience in the field of patent litigation. They must also be a national of a contracting member state and have a good command of at least one official language of the EPO (i.e. English, French or German).
 
For more on the recruitment of UPC judges, see here and here.
For Q&A on the effect on the UPC of the result of the UK's EU referendum, see here.