Italy becomes 12th country to ratify UPC

Italy has ratified the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement, becoming the 12th signatory to the deal.

The ratification was confirmed on Friday, February 10 by the European Council.

For the UPC to be implemented, 13 countries—including the UK, France and Germany—need to ratify the agreement. Neither the UK nor Germany has ratified yet.

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden have rubberstamped the agreement so far.

In September last year, Italy’s Chamber of Deputies, one of the two chambers of Italy’s parliament, approved draft legislation to enable the country to ratify the UPC Agreement.

The legislation enabling Italy’s ratification and implementation of the agreement came into force in November.

In November last year, the UK government gave the go-ahead for ratifying the UPC Agreement, but the government has yet to approve it.

In January this year, the UPC preparatory committee announced that the UPC can become operational in December 2017.

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