Wednesday, December 21, 2022 Adjustment of the timeline: Start of the Sunrise Period on 1 March 2023 – Starting date of transitional measures of EPO remains 1 January 2023

Figure from EPO News message"Unitary Patent: Forms for requesting transitional measures now available" dd 19 December 2022

https://www.epo.org/news-events/news/2022/20221219a.html

The UPC website indicates that the start of the Sunrise Period is postponed for two months. The initial roadmap foresaw 1 January 2023 as the beginning of the Sunrise Period with an entry into force of the UPCA on 1 April 2023. The additional time is intended to allow future users to prepare themselves for the strong authentication which will be required to access the Case Management System (CMS) and to sign documents. As a consequence, the entry into force of the UPCA is now planned to be on 1 June 2023.

In a further message, the starting date of transitional measures of EPO was indicated to remain 1 January 2023. 

Also, Official forms relating to the early uptake of the Unitary Patent are now available on the EPO website.

Monday, October 10, 2022 Entry into force of the UPC Agreement is currently planned for 1 April 2023,

 The latest news message on the UPC website indicates (cited without changes):

Latest state of play in view of the launch of the Unified Patent Court

06 October 2022

Attachments: Implementation roadmap

The UPC Preparatory team is excited to share the implementation roadmap attached. This roadmap depicts all the key activities and milestones of the UPC in the coming months.

The entry into force of the UPC Agreement is currently planned for 1 April 2023, with the Court opening its doors and starting to receive cases as from that date.

The opening notes to the implementation roadmap provides [cited without changes, but with emhhasis added]:

The UPC Preparatory team is excited to share the implementation roadmap below. This roadmap depicts all the key activities and milestones of the UPC in the coming months.

The entry into force of the UPC Agreement is currently planned for 1 April 2023, with the Court opening its doors and starting to receive cases as from that date.

Please note that this roadmap reflect the current state of the UPC project and therefore, might be subject to change. Any such changes, impacting key deliverables and milestones will be communicated.

Figure from UPC website (https://www.unified-patent-court.org/sites/default/files/upc_-_exco_-_upc_external_roadmap-v0.9_edit.pdf)

The implementation roadmap provides the global milestones:

• MS call for contribution (PAP)- tbc: call for contribution request to UPC Member States for the Provisional Application Phase (PAP) if needed;
• Germany ratification: the deposit of the UPCA ratification instrument by Germany will trigger the Sunrise period (first day of the following month) and the entry into force of the UPCA (3 months after the start of the Sunrise period); 
• Start of the Sunrise: the date of the start of the Sunrise period is expected to be January 1, 2023;
• FAP budget approval & call for contribution: first accounting period (FAP) budget approval by the Budget Committee and subsequent call for contribution to UPC Member States;
• [Expected] Entry into force of the UPCA: entry into force of the UPCA and the opening of the Court from 1 April 2023.

Refer to the  implementation roadmap for more details on:

• Recruitment activities
• Case Management System activities and milestones

Tuesday, July 19, 2022 Start of operations of the Court expected in early 2023

According to a News message dated 14 July 2022 on the website of the Unified Patent Court, "the timing of the start of operations of the Court can reasonably be expected to occur in early 2023".

The message is cited in full below (no changes made, except for highlighting):

"The Administrative Committee takes significant steps towards the setting up of the Unified Patent Court

14 July 2022

On 8 July 2022, the Administrative Committee of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) held its second meeting, which took place largely onsite in Luxembourg with the participation of all Contracting Member States and observers. In addition to those observers already admitted in the context of the Administrative Committee’s inaugural meeting on 22 February 2022, a number of observer organisations have now also been admitted pursuant Article 5(7) of the Committee’s Rules of Procedure, namely: epi, EPLAW, EPLIT and BusinessEurope.

As a follow-up to the oral requests of the Contracting Member States during the Administrative Committee’s inaugural meeting, the Committee confirmed the setting-up of local and regional divisions of the Court of First Instance. These divisions will be located in Austria (Vienna), Belgium (Brussels), Demark (Copenhagen), Finland (Helsinki), France (Paris), Germany (Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Mannheim, Munich), Italy (Milan), the Netherlands (The Hague), Slovenia (Ljubljana) and Portugal (Lisbon). The regional Nordic-Baltic division will be mainly located in Sweden (Stockholm). As to the UPC’s Patent Mediation and Arbitration centre, the Committee adopted the Organisational Rules of this Centre, to be set up with seats in Ljubljana and Lisbon.

As to the legal framework of the Court, a major step was taken by the Committee towards ensuring the efficient functioning of the UPC by adopting the Court’s Rules of Procedure and its Table of Fees. Both will enter into force on 1 September 2022. In addition, in the framework of the operational activities of the UPC, the Committee adopted the UPC’s Rules on duty travel, which include incentives for low-carbon emission modes of transport.

From an HR perspective, the Committee also paved the way towards a future recruitment of staff and officials of the Court, by adopting its Medical and social security plan, the Pension scheme and the Internal tax of the UPC.

Last but not least, in accordance with Article 14 of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, the Chair of the Advisory Committee presented to the Administrative Committee the recommended list of the most suitable candidates to be appointed as judges of the Unified Patent Court. This list is expected to be adopted any time soon before the summer break, following the conclusion of a written procedure.

Thanks to these key decisions taken by the Administrative Committee on 8 July 2022, the timing of the start of operations of the Court can reasonably be expected to occur in early 2023.

Please note that all non-confidential adopted documents will be made available this week on the Website of the Court [note from the blog editor: they are available here]. As to a consolidated version of the Rules of Procedure, following legal scrubbing, they will be published during the course of the summer, before their entry into force on 1 September 2022."

Also refer to an earlier News message dd 6 April 2022, "The Provisional Application Phase and the UPC’s expected timeline'' and the News message dd 19 January 2022, "Austria closes the loop – the Protocol on Provisional Application of the UPC Agreement has entered into force"