On February 17 Germany ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement (better known as UPCA according to its English acronym) and the Agreement will definitely entry into force on June 1, 2023.
With the entry into force of the Unified Patent Court Agreement, a European patent with unitary effect will be established, initially covering 17 EU member states (AT, BE, BG, DE, DK, EE, FI, FR, IT, LV, LT, LU, MT, NL, PT, SE, and SI) and establishing a unitary patent jurisdiction in these member states.
The UPCA provides for the establishment of a new court - the Unified Patent Court (UPC) - which will also have jurisdiction over traditional European patents and applications, validated or to be validated separately in the countries of interests, unless the patent proprietor or applicant (or co-proprietors/co-applicants where there is more than one) requests that national courts continue to have exclusive jurisdiction by filing an "opt-out" declaration.
The "opt-out" declaration may be submitted as of March 1st, 2023.
As of January 1st it is also possible to request the European Patent Office to delay the grant of a European patent so as to benefit from the possibility to request the unitary effect after June 1st.
Our European patent attorneys possess the due certification for representation before the new unified court. We are available for any clarification and to assist you in the most appropriate strategic use of the new unified court system for European patents, of the possibility of "opt-out" from the unified court system, and of the future possibility of unitary validation of European patents.
Thanks to Edgardo DeAmbrogi e Romina Aseglio Gianinet
For more information: https://www.epo.org/news-events/news/2023/20230217.html
