The Unified Patent Court is expected to start operating in 2022
After entry into force on 13 August 2021 of the legislation enabling Germany to ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement ("UPCA"), the way has now, in principle, been cleared for the Unified Patent Court ("UPC") to open its doors for cases in the course of 2022.
However, for the UPCA to fully enter into force, Germany and two further Member States are still required to ratify the Protocol on the Provisional Application of UPCA (the "PAP Protocol"). These ratifications are expected to take place during the autumn of 2021 and will mark the beginning of the final phase of the set-up of the UPC - the provisional application period (the "PAP"). In this phase, the last part of the preparatory work can be completed, including the establishment of the legal capacity (e.g. employment of judges) and the organisational capability of the UPC, as well as the finalisation of budgets and IT systems.
Once all the necessary preparatory work has been carried out and the participating Member States are confident that the UPC is ready to operate in an orderly manner, the final instrument of ratification of the UPCA itself will be deposited by Germany. The UCPA will then enter into force four months later, and the UPC will start its work making the Unitary Patent system available to users of the European patent system.
The UPC currently estimates that it will start operations around mid-2022.
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