Ratification Status Of The UPC Agreement

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):

• Austria 06/08/2013
• France 14/03/2014
• Sweden 05/06/2014
• Belgium 06/06/2014
• Denmark 20/06/2014
• Malta 09/12/2014
• Luxembourg 22/05/2015
• Portugal 30/07/2015
• Finland 08/01/2016
• Bulgaria 03/06/2016
• Netherlands 14/9/2016
• Italy 10/02/2017
• Estonia 01/08/2017
• Lithuania 24/08/2017
• Latvia 11/01/2018
• [United Kingdom 26/04/2018 – ratification subsequently withdrawn on 20/07/2020]
• Slovenia 15/10/2021

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 17^th 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.