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What is the “sunrise period”?
The deposit of the Unified Patent Court Agreement ratification instrument by Germany will trigger the Sunrise period and the entry into force of the UPCA (3 months after the start of the Sunrise period).
In anticipation of the opening of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) that is currently planned for April 1st 2023, it will be possible to opt out existing patents and patent application from the jurisdiction of the UPC.
Early request for Unitary Patent possible from January 1st, 2023
The European Patent with unitary effect (“Unified Patent”) will be introduced soon. The final missing ratification is expected to be deposited by Germany in December. (more…)
Opt-out : actions to be undertaken
As you may know, alongside with the set-up of a patent with unitary effect, a Unified Patent Court (UPC) is being established and will be effective at the end of a “sunrise” period (expected in spring 2023).
By default, this UPC court will also have jurisdiction over all your European patent applications and granted European patents (in force or expired since less than 5 years) and deriving SPCs.
EPO abolishes 10 day “delivery grace period”
1. Under the current EPC system, letters from the EPO are deemed to be delivered to the addressee on the tenth day following its handover to the postal service provider. (more…)
Opt-out of SPCs
Operation of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) is currently expected for 1st April 2023 (https://www.unified-patent-court.org/news/latest-state-play-view-launch-unified-patent-court), thus launching the sunrise period as soon as 1st January 2023.
During this sunrise period, it will be possible to opt-out European (EP) titles from the competence of the UPC. Opt-out will be possible for published EP patent applications, granted EP patents (without unitary effect) and Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) issued for a product protected by a EP patent (A.83 UPCA).
Publication of final judges list
The Unified Patent Court recently confirmed the appointment of the 85 judges (34 legally qualified judges and 51 technically qualified judges) for the entry into force of the UPC Agreement. Gérard Myon has been appointed technical qualified judge in Physics.
Official announcement and full list available here