Unified Patent Court Update

Jane Lambert

 

Much has happened since my last article on the Unified Patent Court ("UPC").  The court will open for business on 1 June 2023 and not on 1 April 2023 as I stated on 22 Oct 2022 to allow users more time to prepare themselves for the strong authentication which will be required to access the court's case management system ("the CMS") and to sign documents (see Adjustment of the timeline – Start of the Sunrise Period on 1 March 2023 on the UPC's website 5 Dec 2022). The new website which I mentioned in my previous article is now up and running at https://www.unified-patent-court.org/en.

The new website displays 

• photos of the UPC's buildings, 
• a map of Europe showing the EU member states in blue, member states that have signed the Unified Patent Court Agreement in a darker shade of blue, the states in which the agreement will come into force on 1 June 2023 in dark blue and everywhere else including the UK in grey,
• information on opt-out, registration as a representative before the UPC and FAQ,
• the latest news, and
• important links 

on its home page,

The court's judges whose appointment I mentioned in my previous article have now undergone advanced preparatory training in the UPC's Rules of Procedure (see Launch of the first training for all UPC appointed judges 17 Jan 2023).  Training in the court's internal rules and practice was also given to court staff immediately afterwards (see Update on UPC Training Activities 10 Feb 2023).  Alexander Ramsay, who chaired the committee that handled all the preparatory work, has been appointed the court's first Registrar and Axel Jacobi has been appointed as his deputy (see The Unified Patent Court appoints its first Registrar and Deputy-Registrar  19 Jan 2023).

Germany deposited its instrument of ratification of the UPC Agreement on 17 Feb 2023 nearly 10 years after it had signed it thereby permitting the sunrise period to start on 1 March 2023 (see Germany ratifies the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court  21 Feb 2023).  The sunrise period has now started and holders of European patents can now decide whether they want to opt out of the exclusive jurisdiction of the UPC pursuant to art 83 (3) of the UPC Agreement.   To help them to do so, the court has provided information on filing an opt-out and the following FAQ.

Those who are eligible to practise before the UPC may now apply to be listed as representatives before the court pursuant to art 48 (3) of the UPC agreement.  These include 

• lawyers authorized to practise before the courts of a Contracting Member State pursuant to art 48 (1) and 
• European Patent Attorneys who are entitled to act as professional representatives before the European Patent Office pursuant to art 134 of the EPC and who have appropriate qualifications such as a European Patent Litigation Certificate pursuant to art 48 (2).  

Art 2 (c) defines "Contracting Member State" as  "a Member State party to this Agreement".  Rgar would seem to include countries that have signed the UPC Agreement but not yet ratified it such as the Republic of Ireland.  In this regard, readers are reminded that James Bridgeman SC is a member of these chambers

Anyone requiring further information may call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 or send me a message through my contact page.