Birth of the Unitary Patent Court as an international organisation
The Protocol on Provisional Application of the UPC Agreement has entered into force 24 January 2022
On 18 January, Austria – as the thirteenth signatory state – deposited its instrument of ratification of the Protocol to the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court on Provisional Application (PPA), thus triggering the entry into force of the provisional application of the Unified Patent Court Agreement pursuant to Art. 1 of the PPA.
As a consequence, on 19 January the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union has declared that this Protocol has entered into force.
During the PPA, all the preparatory work required for completing the new Unified Patent Court (UPC) will be carried out. It is deemed that the PPA will take at least 8 months. A relevant task to be carried out in this period will be the recruitment of the judges of the Court.
The Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA) will enter into force on the first day of the fourth month after Germany in turn deposits its ratification instrument, afterwards the UPC system will start in Europe. Provided that Germany will deposit its instrument of ratification of the UPC Agreement, the UPC system is likely to start then by the end of 2022 or early in 2023.
