The Unified Patent Court Preparatory team has announced that the entry into force of the UPC Agreement is currently planned to happen on 1 April 2023, with the Court starting to receive cases as from that date.

According to the “implementation roadmap” circulated by the team, the deposit of the ratification UPC Agreement by Germany will trigger (after one month) the beginning of the Sunrise period, during which right holders will be able to request that their granted European patents and their European patent applications be excluded from the jurisdiction of the UPC (so-called “opting out”).

The expected date for the start of the Sunrise period is set as 1 January 2023.

The official announcement points out however that the implementation roadmap might be subject to change, as it is based on the current state of the UPC project.

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