On Thursday 26 April, the United Kingdom announced that it has reified the agreement on a unified patent court (UPC), taking the number of ratifications to 16 member states. All eyes are now on Germany, the last of the big three countries to have not reified the agreement.
‘Today's ratification by the UK brings us a decisive step closer to achieving the entry into force of the Unitary Patent. We are now within touching distance of a new patent for Europe that will support our innovation sector with simplified administration, reduced costs and greater legal certainty,’ said the president of the European Patents Office, Benoît Battistelli, in a press release published on 26 April.
There were doubts at one point about whether the UK would ratify the agreement after it voted to leave the EU, but the doubts later dissipated (see EUROPE 11949).
Provisional application of the unitary patent will be possible as soon as Germany has ratified it, but this has been suspended following a complaint to the German constitutional court about implementation of the lodged agreement.
In order for the unitary patent to come into force, the agreement on the unified patent court needs to be ratified by at least 13 member states, which must include France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the three countries that register the most patents each year. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)