Latvia Becomes the Fifteenth State to Ratify the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court (UPC)

On 11 January 2018, Latvia became the fifteenth country to deposit its ratification of the UPC Agreement with the EU Council's General Secretariat. The full list of countries which have deposited their ratification of the UPC Agreement is now as follows: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden.

The UPC Agreement will not come into effect until the UK and Germany have ratified the Agreement. In view of the constitutional challenge regarding the UPC underway in Germany, it is still uncertain when the required ratifications will be deposited. In the UK the draft Unified Patent Court (Immunities and Privileges) Order 2017 is awaiting final approval by the Privy Council, having been passed by the UK Parliament on 12 December 2017. This draft Order is likely to be on the agenda of the next Privy Council's meeting, expected to be in early February 2018.