The Protocol on Provisional Application of the Unified Patent Court signed on 01/10/15 has had a few updates since its our first post:
- Hungary signed the Protocol on 07/10/15 after its representative was prevented from signing the Protocol on 01/10/15, as the necessary Hungarian legal requirements had not been completed on time.
- The Netherlands made a declaration stating that it will be bound by the provisional agreement from the day it will ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement.
- The United Kingdom made a reservation to the Unified Patent Court Agreement stating that it “shall not provisionally apply Article 4 of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court”.
The Protocol will allow “final decisions on the practical set up of the Court” to enter into application such as the “recruitment of judges and testing of IT systems“, to permit a smoother set up of the court. The provisional application phase will also be used to allow for early registration of opt-out demands.