Austria has deposited its ratification of the Protocol on Provisional Application of the UPC Agreement. The effect of this is to trigger the start of the commencement of the Provisional Application Period (PAP) and the birth of the UPC as an international organisation.
It is expected that the PAP will last at least eight months. The last three months of the PAP will be the sunrise period during which existing European Patents can be opted-out of the UPC before the UPC starts operating. The start of the three-month sunrise period will be triggered by Germany depositing its ratification of the UPC Agreement.
During the PAP the last part of the preparatory work in establishing the UPC will be conducted. This includes adoption of the secondary legislation, inaugural meetings of the governing bodies, the completion and stress testing of the electronic case management system and the process of selecting and appointing judges. It is expected that approximately 90 judges will be appointed to the UPC.
Please visit our dedicated pages here for more information on the UP and UPC.
