The new UPC “sunrise period” officially commenced today, Wednesday 1st March 2023, marking the start of a three-month lead-in to the new Unified Patent Court (UPC) becoming operative and new unitary patents (UPs) being available for the first time.
During this sunrise period, applicants and proprietors will be able to opt-out their current European patents and patent applications from the jurisdiction of the new Unified Patent Court. Opting out must be requested via the on-line Case Management System (CMS) of the Court and WP Thompson is now beginning to process those opt-out requests for which we have already received instructions as of next week.
Where an opt-out request has not been filed and processed by 1st June 2023, when the new UPC is scheduled to come into force, all existing patents applications pending before the EPO, and granted European patents which are maintained and in force in a contracting EU member state of the UPC, will fall within the jurisdiction of the new UPC. This will enable rights holders to enforce their rights across the 17 contracting EU member states of the UPC; namely: Germany, France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Sweden, and Slovenia. However, there is also the potential for centralised challenges to be brought which would have effect in each of these states. As such, time should be taken now to consider the best option for protecting your IP rights in Europe and whether any opt-out requests are required before the sunrise period ends on 31st May 2023.
If you require any additional information regarding the opt-out process or the UPC in general, please do not hesitate to contact us at upcoptout@wpt.co.uk or via your usual WP Thompson contact.
