The new Unified Patent Court delayed by two months

As we have previously written about, the Unified Patent Court ("UPC") should have entered into force on 1 April 2023. However, this expected effective date has just been postponed by two months to 1 June 2023. The delay is due to the need to postpone the so-called "sunrise period" (read more about the "sunrise period" here).

The postponement is due, inter alia, to the advanced authentication process required to access the UPC case management system. In relation to this process, future users of the UPC will thus need to acquire both client authentication hardware and a qualified electronic signature, which will have to be done through specific providers.

UPC has estimated that this authentication process will already become relevant in the "sunrise period". In order to give users the best possible opportunity to prepare, it has therefore been decided to change the original timeline, so that the "sunrise period" will now start from 1 March 2023 and run until 1 June 2023, which will thus be the new official date of UPC's expected entry into force.

However, UPC announced at the same time as the postponement that no further delays are expected. Thus, all preparatory work has been completed, the UPC Rules of Procedure have been adopted, all judges have been appointed and the Presidents of both the Court of Appeal and the Court of First Instance have been elected and have assumed their offices.

At Lundgrens, we naturally follow the remaining creation process closely.