Lithuania Becomes the Fourteenth State to Ratify the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court (UPC)

On 24 August 2017, Lithuania became the fourteenth country to deposit its ratification of the UPC Agreement with the EU Council. The full list of countries which have deposited their ratification of the UPC Agreement is now as follows: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and Finland. The status of the UPC Agreement is available here. 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 unlikely that the required ratifications will be deposited until spring 2018 at the earliest.