UPC enters final stages after Austria completes ratification
Final preparations for the long-awaited Unified Patent Court (UPC) will now begin, after Austria deposited its instrument of ratification yesterday, January 18.
The development, confirmed by the European Patent Office (EPO), paves the way for the provisional application of the UPC to enter into force, nearly a decade after an international agreement (the UPCA) green lighting the court was first signed by 25 EU member states.
The EU Internal Market commissioner, Thierry Breton, described the ratification as “an important day for innovation” in Europe.
“It has been a long and difficult way to get here: almost 50 years of discussions, and a decade since the Unitary Patent was agreed.... with a sufficient number of Member States now having ratified the legal instruments, the provisional application can start, paving the way for the full launch of the Unitary Patent within the next 12 months.”
Kevin Mooney, chairman of the UPC's Rules and Procedure committee, also welcomed the development: “Preparations for the opening of the court will now go into third gear. We had a meeting today of the interim teams appointed by the Preparatory Committee and the mood is very positive.”
Back in 2017, speculation had mounted over whether the pan-European court and Unitary Patent would materialise in the wake of Brexit, and constitutional complaints that halted its progress.
But with the start of the provisional application, the Unitary Patent will now “become a reality”, said EPO President António Campinos.
“A cost-attractive patent, uniformly covering the territory of all participating EU member states will be available a few months from now,” said Campinos.
The UPC will be an international court with jurisdiction for infringement and revocation actions concerning patents granted by the EPO. Its supporters say that this specialised court will make the Europe-wide enforcement of patents easier, offer greater legal certainty and reduce litigation costs.
According to the EPO, the Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court are the building blocks of the Unitary Patent package which will supplement and strengthen the existing centralised European patent-granting system.
Unitary Patents will make it possible to obtain uniform patent protection in up to 25 EU member states by submitting a single request to the EPO, making the protection of inventions for patent holders “simpler and more cost effective”, the office said.
During the period of provisional application, which is expected to take eight months, the technical and infrastructural preparations for the UPC will be completed to allow the entry into operation of the Unitary Patent system before the end of the year.
Also commenting, Myles Jelf, partner at Bristows, said: “While some may have grown weary waiting for the decade long genesis of the UPC to come to fruition, Austria's deposition of its formal approval of the Provisional Application Phase of the UPC is genuinely the final piece of the puzzle being put in place.”
He added: “With the activation of the preparatory process, the coming year will see the real-world systems of the new court bring brought into existence so that by the end of the year, or more likely early next, it will be opening its doors to the first cases and a new and exciting forum for patent litigation will have become a reality.”
The deposit by Germany of its ratification instrument of the UPCA, already approved in December 2020, will formally trigger the entry into force of the UPCA and allow the UPC to start working.
With a view to supporting patent applicants in an early uptake of the Unitary Patent, the EPO has confirmed that it will introduce transitional measures with respect to European patent applications having reached the final phase of the grant procedure.
These measures will be made available ahead of the entry into force of the Unitary Patent system.
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