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ARTICLE · 21 JULY 2020

UK Withdraws From UPC Agreement

J A Kemp
J A Kemp
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J A Kemp

J A Kemp

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Further to a previous announcement that the UK government would not be seeking involvement in the UP/UPC system, the UK today announced its official withdrawal from the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement.

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Further to a previous announcement that the UK government would not be seeking involvement in the UP/UPC system, the UK today announced its official withdrawal from the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement.

The UP/UPC system is an EU initiative to establish a Unitary Patent (UP) having unitary effect throughout the EU member states, and to establish the Unified Patent Court (UPC) to hear disputes relating to the Unitary Patent, and also relating to European patents having effect in the EU member states.

The UPC agreement was signed in 2013 and ratified by the UK on 26 April 2018 by Theresa May's government. Under the agreement, one of the central divisions of the court was to be hosted in London. The agreement was set to come into force once 13 member states including the three in which the highest number of European patents had effect in 2012 (UK, Germany and France) ratified it. Until today, only Germany needed to ratify the agreement for it to come into effect.

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