On January 19, 2016 Finland has deposited its instruments of ratification with the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union and, thus, ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (Official Journal of the European Union, C 175, 20 June 2013 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=OJ:C:2013:175:TOC), commonly referred to as the “UPC Agreement”. Accordingly, Finland is the ninth member state together with Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal and Sweden to have ratified the UPC Agreement.

The new Unified Patent Court system is expected to come into force in 2017, after ratification of the UPC Agreement by at least 13 member states including Germany, France and UK. For the latest ratification status of the UPC Agreement please refer to: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/documents-publications/agreements-conventions/agreement/?aid=2013001

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact: schiuma@mueller-bore.de.