Our partners and attorneys are highly qualified and highly experienced to advise you in all areas of Intellectual Property law. We advise start-ups, SMEs, and multinational corporations and ensure that your inventions, brands and designs are expertly protected.
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The Unified Patent Court Agreement was signed by 25 EU Member States on 19 February 2013. The following 16 states have ratified the UPC Agreement up to now (status updated 15 October 2021):
The UPC agreement now only requires ratification by Germany, to enable the Unified Patent Court to open for business. The current plan is for Germany to complete its ratification in the week beginning 19 December. .
If Germany becomes the 17th country to complete ratification in December 2022, it will become possible to register “opt outs” from 1 January 2023 and the court will open on 1 April 2023.
We strongly recommend that owners of European patents do not delay decisions about which of their European patents to “opt out” from the jurisdiction of the UPC and which should fall within the jurisdiction of this new court. For advice on this issue, you can contact the combined team of European patent attorneys and litigation experts at AA Thornton.
