Dear all

Johanna found the interesting report as attached. It seems to say, as soon as Germany has ratified, the UP will come into force automatically.

Will Germany ratify? The Supreme Court decided that the last vote in German Parliament was not acceptable. But it looks like it would be acceptable if a two third majority would be in favor (my rough understanding).

Thus there is some time delay, but maybe not a general problem.

If for example Austrian government would get in contact with German Bundestag now (or the Green Party in German Bundestag) this might be a way to get some broader discussion in in German Parliament.

The German office also try to inform Ministry of Justice about existing concerns.

Maybe this situation is worth to think about in your organisations. Our current conclusion (as now being part of the glossary) is:

In future the EPO will be granting patents with a “unitary effect” under the so-called new “Unitary Patent”. This will not change the way how patents are examinded, but will ease the way to put the patents in force after being granted by the EPO. Currently it is planned, that 25 member states of EU will join (all besides Spain and Croatia). While the costs for the companies to get patent protection are lowered, the fees to challenge the patents in the Unfied Patent Court are very high.

more specifically we are concerned about validation seed patents in much more countries than before.

Cheers

Christoph