UP/UPC Update: Austria approaches provisonal application

9 February 2019

On 29 January, Austria’s government signed the Protocol to the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court on Provisional Application (PPA). Austria is expected to complete its PPA accession in a relatively near future through parliament’s ratification (similar to what Bulgaria did in 2017–2018 albeit each acceding country acts under its own rules and conditions). A completed Austrian PPA accession means that ‘critical mass’ is at hand in each of the two steps of the system´s operationalisation: Germany gets executive powers, first in starting provisional application one day after its PPA ratification, then in setting the date for the system’s entry into force on a given day 3–4 months after its ratification of the UPC Agreement. Germany´s ratifications are currently under the scrutiny of the Federal Constitutional Court, the decision of which we are awaiting.

Read more about the Unitary Patent System (UP/UPC) here.