Austria has completed the ratification of the ‘provisional protocol’ for the Unified Patent Court Agreement. This has initiated the startup phase of the Unified Patent Court. If this startup phase proceeds as planned and clears a last safety catch, the Unified Patent Court may open its doors by early 2023.
On 19 January 2022 the Protocol to the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court on provisional application entered into force. The UPC Preparatory Committee deems that the Provisional Application period (PAP) will last at least eight months. They further explain that“when the State Parties are confident that the Court is functional, Germany will deposit its instrument of ratification of the UPC Agreement, which will trigger the countdown until this Agreement’s entry into force and set the date for the start of the UPC’s operations”.
A schematic illustration of the remaining steps is shown below:
Once the UPCA enters into force, the UPC will start its work and be available to the users of the European patent system. Once fully up and running, the UPC will be a single patent court that covers up to 24 countries of the European Union.
For details and more information visit the website of the Unified Patent CourtF