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BREAKING NEWS: Germany ratifies Unified Patent Court Agreement

Kluwer Patent blogger

February 17, 2023

Today, Germany has ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court.

This has been confirmed by a statement of its Federal Ministry of Justice.

Germany’s ratification launches the countdown as set under Article 89 of the UPC Agreement according to which the Agreement will enter into force on 1 June 2023. According to an announcement by the UPC, the 'Agreement’s entry into force will mark a new era for European innovation with the launch of the Unified Patent Court and the Unitary Patent.'

According to the statement of the German ministry of justice (translated in Google), the 'court will initially decide patent disputes with immediate effect for 17 states (Germany, France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Sweden, Slovenia). Further EU member states can join the unitary patent protection in the future. As part of the preparations, the member states have agreed on a code of civil procedure for the new procedure, in which modern technology is used. The files of the court are managed fully electronically in a case management system; the decisions of the court are also issued in electronic form.'

According to an announcement of the EPO, European patent applicants have already shown strong interest in the new Unitary Patent system. 'Since the EPO launched its transitional measures on 1 January to encourage an early uptake of the new system, more than 2 200 requests for unitary effect and/or for delay of grant have been filed.

The Unitary Patent system will mark the single most important reform in the history of the European patent system since its creation in 1973.The new system will enable uniform patent protection across all participating EU members states by way of a single patent application filed with the EPO and provide a centralised platform for Europe-wide patent litigation before the Unified Patent Court. The 25 EU member states participating in enhanced cooperation for the Unitary Patent package are estimated to have a combined GDP of more than 14 trillion euros (corresponding to 80% of the entire EU's GDP) and incorporate a population of nearly 400 million people - more than the US, Canada and Australia combined.'

Comments (12)

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Hit Smehard

February 17, 2023 AT 6:56 PM

Where (in which court) can the decision to declare it into force while the conditions are not met can be challenged for malministration?

Inventive but not new response to Hit Smehard

February 20, 2023 AT 1:29 PM

Simple and SME friendly: You have a client being sued before the UPC. Ignore the proceedings and the court. Receive an enforcement title against your client. Go to your district court (the smallest and nearest you can have) and claim to have the UPC decision declared null and void since it comes from a non existing court. Watch the case climb up the successive stages of appeal.

Patent robot

February 18, 2023 AT 2:41 PM

Summer 2023 will be quite hot

IPfrog

February 19, 2023 AT 5:49 AM

Any news regarding the allocation of pharma cases ?

Concerned observer response to IPfrog

February 20, 2023 AT 10:23 AM

Interesting question. If it is to be Milan, as apparently suggested by "well-informed sources", this raises all sorts of questions to which there do not appear to be acceptable answers. For example: What might the legal basis be for replacing "London" with "Milan" in the UPC Agreement? When ratifying the UPC Agreement, did national legislatures relinquish to the AC the right to select central locations for the UPC (and/or other, similarly important rights)? If so, which provision(s) of the UPC Agreement make this crystal clear? What is to be done about the fact that none of the AC decisions appointing judges mention Milan as the "instance of the ... division of the Court of First Instance" to which the judges have been appointed? (See Article 3(5) of the UPC's Statute) Finally, on a purely pragmatic note, if all of the Member States are agreed upon Milan as the new (third) location for the Central Division, what on earth is preventing the Member States from agreeing, and then ratifying, an amended UPC Agreement? Whilst doing so might slow things down considerably, would that not be preferable to setting up an international court in a manner that blatantly contravenes international law?

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