Federal Act on the Federal Patent Court

¹As a gen­er­al rule, the Court makes its de­cisions as a three-mem­ber body (pan­el), of whom at least one mem­ber must pos­sess tech­nic­al train­ing and one mem­ber leg­al train­ing.

²On the or­der of the Pres­id­ent, the Court shall make its de­cisions as a five-mem­ber pan­el, at least one mem­ber of which must pos­sess tech­nic­al train­ing and one mem­ber leg­al train­ing where this is in the in­terest of the fur­ther de­vel­op­ment of the law or the uni­form ap­plic­a­tion of the law.

³Where more than one tech­nic­al field of ex­pert­ise is to be judged in a dis­pute, on the or­der of the Pres­id­ent, the Court shall make its de­cision as a pan­el com­posed of up to sev­en mem­bers, of whom at least one must pos­sess leg­al train­ing.

⁴The tech­nic­ally trained judges are ap­poin­ted ac­cord­ing to the tech­nic­al field of ex­pert­ise at is­sue in a dis­pute.

⁵At least one per­man­ent judge must al­ways sit on a pan­el oth­er than in cases of force ma­jeure.