Germany has today ratified the UPC Agreement meaning the go-live date for the Unitary Patent (UP) and the Unified Patent Court (UPC) will be 1 June 2023.
The UP has the benefit of making it easier and more cost effective to protect and renew a patent granted by the EPO in multiple EU countries. This will be available for European patents that grant on or after 1 June 2023.
The UPC will allow European patents to be enforced or challenged centrally and for a single ruling to be given that applies across multiple EU countries.
There will now be a sunrise period of three months starting on 1 March 2023, during which opt outs can be filed.
如果专利权人不希望其专利在统一专利法院（UPC）体系下面临集中挑战，就需要在该体系正式运行前采取行动选择退出。
If we are the European patent attorneys of record, we will shortly be contacting you in relation to all granted EPO patents if you were our instructing contact at the time of grant in relation to whether an opt out is needed.
我们将提供所有已获授权专利的清单，该清单将根据我们的记录按专利权人分组列出，但只有在收到明确指示（包括确认所有专利权人均同意，并附其姓名和地址详细信息）的情况下，我们才会办理退出手续。
For more information please contact the author or your usual Barker Brettell attorney.
“The UPC will allow European patents to be enforced or challenged centrally and for a single ruling to be given that applies across multiple EU countries.”
