The UK divisions of Europe's new one-stop patent court are to be based in the east of the City of London rather than in the capital's traditional legal district.

The UK Intellectual Property Office announced yesterday that it had signed a lease for space in Aldgate Tower, Whitechapel, to secure premises for the London section of the Central Division and the UK Local Division of the Unified Patent Court.

The Unified Patent Court (UPC) will be a court common to 25 contracting member states of the EU and thus part of their judicial system. It will have exclusive competence in respect of European patents. The central division will be seated in Paris, with sections in London and Munich.

The court is intended to be self-financing. 

Baroness Neville-Rolfe, intellectual property minister, said the signing of the lease represents a milestone in the UK’s preparations for the introduction of the Unified Patent Court.

'Aldgate Tower, with its superb central location, will provide an ideal home for a modern court to support the UK’s and Europe’s leading-edge innovative companies. This will further strengthen UK’s legal and professional services sector, and reinforce London’s status as a world-leading centre for dispute resolution.'

In theory the court is due to open in 2016. However so far only eight of the required 13 contracting member states have ratified the agreement to create the unified patent system. The development could also be threatened by the referendum on the UK's membership of the EU, due to take place before the end of 2017. 

Meanwhile, the Law Society has criticised proposals for fees and costs recovery at the new court. In its response to a consultation by the court's preparatory committee, the Society's intellectual property law committee recommends setting value-based fees to all actions with special treatment for 'deserving parties'.