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Merry Christmas!
2023-06-01: Unified Patent Court starts today

Today, June 1st, 2023, marks the official entry into force of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) agreement. As a result, the UPC becomes operational and the unitary effect of European patents can now be requested. The UPC will be responsible for hearing cases related to all European patents with unitary effect.

However, European patents that have been validated conventionally, without unitary effect, may still be subject to an opt-out and thus may or may not fall within the jurisdiction of the UPC.

It’s important to note that the unitary effect applies only to those countries that are members of the UPC agreement. Therefore, non-EU member states that are party to the European Patent Convention, as well as EU member states and European Patent Convention signatories that have not yet ratified the UPC agreement, are excluded from its scope.

In addition, the unitary effect will gradually expand when subsequent states ratify UPC agreement. Extended unitary effect will cover newly granted European patents, but will not be applied retroactively to patents granted earlier. Thus, for a couple of years, the term ‘unitary’ will be unequivocal only when followed by a specific date, such as ‘unitary@2023-06-01’.

Since 2023-11-01 EPO “10-day notification rule” is going to be no more

2023-11-01 is a date worth noting as algorithm for computation of time limits is going to change and “10-day notification rule” is going to be applied no more in the proceedings before the European Patent Office (EPO). This means that time limits will be triggered by the date set on the EPO communication not by day falling 10 days later (fictitious date of receipt). More details can be found at: https://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/official-journal/2023/03/a29.html .

We represent our clients before Unified Patent Court

Our patent attorney Dr. Eng. Marek Bury has been entered on the list of representatives before the Unified Patent Court. Until the launch of the system, this only means that we can exclude the competence of the Unified Patent Court with regard to cases involving already granted patents (opt-out). After 2023-06-01, the scope of activities in which we will assist before the Unified Patent Court will significantly expand.

We wish you a happny New Lunar Year of Rabbit
Merry Christmas!