Ratification Archives - Page 3 of 4 - UPC Blog by amar goussu staub

21 January 2016

Finland is the ninth country to ratify the UPCA:

Encouraging steps by participating member states towards the entry into force of the UPC Agreement

Finland deposited its instrument of ratification of the UPC Agreement in Brussels with the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union on 19th January. Finland is the ninth member state to complete this step, the others being Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal and Sweden. Two more countries must now ratify the UPCA, on top of the ratifications of Germany and the UK.

The UK has indicated that it would ratify the Agreement before its referendum on its EU membership, whose date has not been confirmed yet. On the other hand, it is expected that Germany will only ratify the UPCA in Septembre 2016. The entry into force of the UPC is planned for February 2017.

9 December 2015

Updates on the Protocol on Provisional Application of the Unified Patent Court Agreement:

protocol to the agreement on unified patent court on provisional application

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.

5 October 2015

Italy joins the Unitary Patent

We reported a few weeks ago that Italy had formally requested the European Commission to join the unitary patent. It appears from the European Commission website that Italy’s request was accepted and that it has now become the 26th member of the enhanced cooperation on unitary patent protection.

Italy was initially opposed to the Council of Europe’s decision to allow the enhanced cooperation and challenged it, along Spain, before the Court of Justice of the European Union in May 2011. However after the CJEU rejected Italy and Spain’s actions in April 2013, Italy decided to sign the Unified Patent Court but abstained from participating in the enhanced cooperation.

Here our post on Italy and Spain’s challenges of the Unitary Patent from 2011 to its resolution in 2015.

Italy (but also Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom) must now ratify the UPCA.

24 September 2015

More about ratification: What about Finland, Slovakia, or Germany?

Not long ago we posted about Italy’s change of direction in relation to the Unified Patent Court and the Unitary Patent, and its notification to the European Council of its intention to participate to the enhanced cooperation. It seems however that more happened this summer concerning the ratification of the UPC Agreement:

Bristows reports that Finland is progressing towards a ratification by the end of 2015. The Finish Ministry of Employment and Economy in fact set up in February 2015 a working group to prepare the ratification of the UPCA. This working group published to this effect a draft for a Government Bill focusing on “how its provisions will be brought into force in the country and on how national legislation would be amended to align it with the provisions of the Agreement “, which should be considered this autumn. The UPCA would then become part of the national legislation thanks to a special piece of legislation and therefore entail for Finland an amendment of its Patent Code, Criminal Code, Code of Judicial Procedure and the Enforcement Code.

Bristows also notes that The Netherlands, Lithuania and Estonia are moving towards ratification in the coming months, while Germany’s ratification process is due to start in autumn 2015 and the UK’s ratification is scheduled for spring 2016.

The Kluwer Patent Blog published a post on Slovakia and the Czech Republic’s ratifications. It highlights the problems that these countries might face with the Unitary Patent renewal fees and the Unified Patent Court fees. Martin Husovec, a Slovak-born lawyer, academic and Doctoral Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Munich interviewed by the Blog explains that both countries will in fact face “a sky-rocketing increase in the number of valid patents on their territory“, which means that “many activities that have been open to free competition will now need to be licensed and paid for“. The cost of doing business in these countries will therefore increase. Second, “it is likely that in the future UPC cases involving Czech or Slovak companies, they will most often be the defending party. For them, the proposed UPC fees, sometimes more than hundred times higher than currently at national courts, is not going to be good news.” Finally the Czech Confederation of Industry complains that “the consequence of the introduction of high fees will not be better accessibility of the protection of the rights of our inventors, but rather creation of an arena for the ‘activities’ of economically stronger multinational corporations.” The Czech Republic and Slovakia have therefore signaled that if their concerns are not addressed, they might considerably delay their ratification.

For regular updates on the UPC and the ratification process, follow us on Twitter @UPCBlogLAVOIX

17 September 2015

Italy one step closer to become a signatory to the UPC Agreement

While summer was in full swing, it seems that we missed an important piece of information about the UPC Agreement…

In fact, Italy notified the European Council on 07th July 2015 of “its intention to participate in the enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection and in the enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection with regard to the applicable translation arrangements“.

Italy, therefore, seems committed to become a signatory to the Unified Patent Court Agreement, and the 26th country to participate to the Unitary Patent.

Its letter to the General Secretariat of the Council can be found here.

1 September 2015

Portugal has ratified the UPC Agreement…5 more countries to go!

Protocol to the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court on provisional application

Portugal deposited its instruments of ratification for the UPC Agreement on Friday 28/08/15, as indicated on the European Council website.

According to the IP Copy, Portugal had passed the presidential decree ratifying the UPC Agreement on 06/08/15, but had not deposited its instrument of ratification at the Council of Europe before last week.

It has now become the eight country to have ratified the UPC Agreement. The UPCA will however only enter into force after Germany, the UK, and three more countries ratify it, following the ratification rule which states that:

“The Agreement will enter into force on the first day of the fourth month after the fulfilment of the following two requirements (whichever is the latest):

5 June 2015

One more…Luxembourg has now ratified the UPC Agreement!

As confirmed by the Council of the European Union, Luxembourg deposited its instrument of ratification in Brussels on 22/05/15. It is thus official: Luxembourg has ratified the UPCA. Luxembourg is the first country to ratify the UPCA in 2015 and hopefully not the last!

In fact, seven out of twenty-one countries have now ratified the UPCA. However for the UPC Agreement to enter into force a total of thirteen countries is necessary, divided as follows: France, Germany, UK + ten other countries. The Council of the European Commission counts at the moment: France + six other countries. Therefore for the UPC to stay on track and be effective by 2016 Germany, UK + four other countries need to ratify reasonably soon.

1 September 2014

Denmark has ratified the UPCA

Following a referendum in May 2014 in favor of the UPC, Denmark has ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement on 20 June 2014. Denmark will establish a local division of the UPC in Copenhagen with Danish and English as official languages.

You can find the ratification table here

2 July 2014

Sweden and Belgium have ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement!

June has seen two new ratifications of the Unified Patent court Agreement by Sweden and Belgium, respectively on 05^th and 06^th June 2014.

Sweden had already announced earlier this year that it will form a regional division of the UPC together with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which explains this quick ratification. The Nordic-Baltic court will operate in english only.

You can find a summary of the ratification progress here and on the site of the European Commission, as well as a map of the countries which have already ratified here.

28 May 2014

Danes vote “Yes” for the UPC!

On Sunday 25th May, Denmark voted in favour of joining the Unified Patent Court in a referendum that took place along the European elections. 62.55% of Danes voted “yes” against 37.45% of “No”, out of a total 2,303,178 voters or 54% of the population. (source: Election Guide)

Denmark is one of five EU nations to have an opt-out clause on justice and home affairs. Hence, to be part of the UPC, the Danish government needed either an 80 percent backing in parliament or the majority in a referendum. The Danish People’s Party and the Red-Green Alliance however had indicated they did not support the proposal, which triggered the referendum.

Denmark now needs to ratify the UPC Agreement.

European internal market and services commissioner Michel Barnier welcomed the results:

“The approval of the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court by Danish voters gives a very positive signal to all signatories and should encourage them to ratify without any further delay. As a first specialized court common to the Member States in the patent litigation area, the Court will open a new chapter in the history of both the patent system and judicial cooperation in the EU.” (source: European Commission)