EU Competitiveness Council to review Current Status of the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court

The Council of the European Union has published a note, from the Presidency to the Council, entitled “Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court - Information from the Presidency on the state of play”.

The note relates to the upcoming meeting of the Competitiveness Council on 30 November, and explains as follows:

“The Presidency will give an overview of the status quo concerning the operationalisation of the Unified Patent Court and the Unitary Patent. Thereafter, the floor will be opened for any further information by Member States. All Member States which have not yet ratified the UPCA and/or joined its provisional application, but are in a position to do so within a foreseeable period of time, are invited and encouraged to briefly present their state of play.”

Those who have been following the UPC closely will be aware that only two further signatories are required to ratify the UPC Agreement and deposit their instruments of ratification before it can take effect: Germany and the United Kingdom. However, in both instances the process appears to have run into delays; the former owing to a constitutional challenge and the latter to Brexit. It is unclear whether these two, crucial, member states will consider themselves to be “in a position to [ratify] within a foreseeable period of time” and therefore accept the Presidency’s invitation, but those of us seeking clarity hope that they will.

We will be reporting on the meeting once it has happened, so stay tuned for an update here and on the Allen & Overy UPC Microsite.