Finally, after many years of difficulties, the combined Unitary Patent (UP) and Unified Patent Court (UPC) project is about to become a reality.
The announcement by Germany of its ratification of the Protocol on Provisional Application (PPA) in August 2021, along with the subsequent deposit of the PPA ratification instrument in September 2021, has marked an important milestone towards entry into force. What stood in the way was the needed ratification of the PPA by one more Member State which is no longer the case and, ultimately, the final stages towards entry into force can be underway.
