UPC Sunrise Period Now Open

Today, 1 March 2023, marks the start of the “sunrise period” before the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement enters into force on 1 June 2023. This three-month period provides patentees, and applicants, with the opportunity to opt out non-unitary European patents from the jurisdiction of the UPC, before the UPC opens its doors to litigants.

Our European Patent Attorneys will begin performing their first acts as UPC representatives. This will initially involve filing opt outs, and we very much look forward to making use of the opportunities that this new forum, and the new Unitary Patent, will bring to our clients in due course.

We recommend that if clients have not yet decided which cases are to be opted out, they do so without delay. Although the sunrise period will last three months, establishing the information necessary to file an opt out can be time consuming and even the UPC itself “strongly advises that you do not wait until the last couple of weeks of the sunrise period to perform opt out calls” because of concerns about their computers being overwhelmed with opt out requests.

Please contact your usual J A Kemp advisor for further information about opting out in the sunrise period.