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16 January 2017Patents

UPC due to become operational in December 2017

The Unified Patent Court (UPC) preparatory committee has announced that the UPC can become operational in December this year.

Today, January 16, the committee announced that it is now “working under the assumption” that the provisional application phase will start at the end of spring 2017, “presumably in May”.

The committee said that the court can become operational in December 2017.

It confirmed that judicial interviews can begin and “appointments eventually confirmed”.

In October last year, WIPR reported that the UPC had postponed the recruitment of UPC judges in light of the Brexit vote.

“The current timetable is being revisited in light of the result of the referendum in the UK, which will to some extent delay the entry into operation of the UPC,” it said at the time.

In November last year, former UK Minister of State for Intellectual Property, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, made the announcement that the UK will implement the unitary patent and UPC.

The UK has not yet ratified, but according to law firm Bristows, the UK’s ratification is “expected in April”.

The firm added that “Germany [is] expected to be able to confirm its intention to do likewise”.

In October last year, the Netherlands announced its ratification. At the time, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Sweden, and France had ratified.

In addition, the sunrise period to opt European patents out of the UPC has now been planned for “early September 2017”, according to the preparatory committee.

This will provide patent owners with a minimum of three months to opt out any patents from the jurisdiction of the court before it becomes operational

However, the preparatory committee cautioned that the timetable is “conditional” and that there are “a number of factors that will dictate whether it is achievable”.

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