Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court expected to launch on 1 April 2023

With the Unified Patent Court (UPC), a common patent court for currently 17 EU member states (including Austria, Germany, Italy and France) has been created. A roadmap published by the UPC now gives for the first time a concrete date for the entry into force of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA). After many years of delays, the EPC will finally open its doors for patent infringement and nullity proceedings on 1 April 2023.

Currently, the Provisional Application Phase is still ongoing, which was initiated with the deposit of the ratification by Austria at the beginning of January 2022. According to the new roadmap, Germany will ratify the UPCA in December 2022, triggering the three-month sunrise period starting on 1 January 2023. From 1 April 2023, it should be possible to obtain European patents with unitary effect ("Unitary Patents") and to bring actions before the UPC.
 

SONN not only supports you in obtaining unitary patents, but also will represent you from Day 1 in infringement and nullity proceedings before the EPC. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the SONN team.