Estonia ratifies the UPC but implementation delay continues

Estonia ratifies the UPC but implementation delay continues

On 1 August 2017, Estonia took the necessary steps to ratify the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement. Estonia is therefore the 13th country to ratify the agreement.  The other countries which have ratified are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Sweden, France and the Netherlands.  

The requirement for the UPC Agreement to come into effect is the ratification by a minimum of 13 countries, including the UK, France and Germany. Although the minimum number of countries have ratified, the UK and Germany still need to complete their own ratification procedures for the UPC to come into effect.  

An ongoing matter before Germany’s constitution court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) means that ratification in Germany is currently on hold.  Details of the action before the German Court are yet to the made public and it is not known how serious the objections are in Germany. 

While the matter of Brexit is causing some delay, ratification by the UK is expected. The ratification progress can be followed on the European Council’s website here.

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