Expected Start of the UPC

End 2022 / beginning 2023

Important Dates

January 18, 2022: Ratification of the Protocol on Provisional Application by Austria as the 13th EU Member State.

Ongoing since January 19, 2022: Provisional application phase for assuring proper functioning of the Unified Patent Court.

2nd half of 2022: Start of the 3-month sunrise period to opt out of existing bundle patents

End of 2022: Start of the Unified Court and official availability of the Unitary Patent

End of 2029: End of the phase of parallel availability of the bundle patent and unitary patent for the participating EU member states

EU states that have already ratified

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg,
Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden

EU states whose ratification is still pending

Greece, Ireland, Croatia, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Cyprus have already signed the UPC Agreement, but have not yet ratified it.

Poland, Spain and Hungary have initially expressed no interest in the UPC and the unitary patent, but may still ratify the UPC Agreement later.

More information

We recommend the other articles in our blog:
a) on the opting-out, the establishment of the UPC and the Sunrise period;
b) on the legal basis of the UPC and the unitary patent;
c) on the benefits of a unitary European patent protection.

Autor: Dr. Martin Kuschel