The Territorial Scope of the UPCA Expands
June 15, 2024
Romania (RO) deposited its instrument of ratification of the UPC Agreement on 31 May 2024 and will thus accede the Agreement on 1 September 2024 (Article 89(2) UPCA). Thus, Romania is the 18th Member State to ratify the Agreement.
EPO issued a notice on 5 June 2024, announcing the possibility to delay registration of unitary effect for requests filed as of 5 June 2024: “In order to allow users to benefit from the territorial scope of the second Unitary Patent generation covering Romania, the EPO will accept requests for a delay of the registration of unitary effect as of the date of the present notice.
To benefit from the additional service, proprietors will need to expressly request the delay together with their request for unitary effect either in the annotation field of EPO Form 7000 (OLF or OLF2.0) or under separate cover.“
See https://www.epo.org/en/legal/official-journal/advance-notice-romania.
In the meantime, the Milan Central Division will open its doors on 26 June 2024.