Today, Germany has ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court.
This has been confirmed by a statement of its Federal Ministry of Justice.
Germany’s ratification launches the countdown as set under Article 89 of the UPC Agreement according to which the Agreement will enter into force on 1 June 2023. According to an announcement by the UPC, the ‘Agreement’s entry into force will mark a new era for European innovation with the launch of the Unified Patent Court and the Unitary Patent.’
According to the statement of the German ministry of justice (translated in Google), the ‘court will initially decide patent disputes with immediate effect for 17 states (Germany, France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Sweden, Slovenia). Further EU member states can join the unitary patent protection in the future. As part of the preparations, the member states have agreed on a code of civil procedure for the new procedure, in which modern technology is used. The files of the court are managed fully electronically in a case management system; the decisions of the court are also issued in electronic form. Read more