ARTICLE
18 August 2013

Austria Becomes First Country To Ratify The Agreement On Establishing The Unified Patent Court (UPC)

D
Dehns

Contributor

Founded in 1920, Dehns is one of Europe’s largest full service intellectual property firms, with offices in London, Munich, Oslo, Oxford, Bristol, Brighton, Manchester and Birmingham.

In addition to obtaining patent, trade mark and design protection around the world, our services also extend to IP management consulting and dispute resolution. Dehns attorneys have expertise in a wide range of technologies across the engineering, chemistry and biotechnology sectors.

Our clients include private inventors, universities and research institutions, start-ups and SMEs as well as large multinational corporations. We are firmly focussed on delivering clear advice and valuable results at a competitive cost.

Dehns’ straightforward, business-oriented approach combined with technical excellence has made us leaders in our field and we are proud of our top tier rankings.

The Agreement on establishing the Unified Patent Court (UPC) was signed in February 2013 and seeks to establish a unified patent court system across Europe to handle the enforcement of new EU Unitary Patents when they come into effect.
Austria Intellectual Property

The Agreement on establishing the Unified Patent Court (UPC) was signed in February 2013 and seeks to establish a unified patent court system across Europe to handle the enforcement of new EU Unitary Patents when they come into effect.  A list of the countries who signed the agreement can be found here.

The Unified Patent Court will not have competence over national patent rights such as those granted by the UK Intellectual Property Office.

However, the Unified Patent Court will ultimately assume competence in relation to infringement and validity disputes in respect of regular (i.e. non-Unitary) European patents as currently granted by the European Patent Office.

In order for the Unified Patent Court system to become a reality it is necessary for 13 member states who signed the Agreement to take the subsequent step of ratifying the Agreement.  It is also a requirement that the Agreement is ratified by the UK, France and Germany.

Austria became the first member state to ratify the Agreement by depositing its instrument of ratification in Brussels on 7 August 2013.  A press release from the Austrian Foreign Ministry can be found here.

The UK and France are currently in the process of seeking to ratify the Agreement. 

A new UK Intellectual Property Bill is currently before UK Parliament which includes a clause 16 which seeks to implement the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court.

The process of ratifying the Agreement in Germany is likely to be delayed until after elections on 22 September 2013.

The UK appears to be on schedule to ratify the Agreement around April/May 2015 and so the earliest that the Unified Patent Court could become a reality is late 2015.  However, it is thought more likely that the Unified Patent Court will become a reality at some point during 2016.

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