News

In a notice from the EPO dated 22 December 2021 the EPO announced the decision of the President to give applicants the possibility to request that the issuance of the decision to grant a European patent be delayed so that the mention of the grant is published in the European Patent Bulletin on or immediately after the date of entry into force of the UPCA in order to allow the registration of unitary effect for that European patent.

In a notice from the EPO dated 22 December 2021 the EPO announced that it will accept early requests for unitary effect as of the date of deposit of Germany's instrument of ratification of the UPCA.

Yesterday, Austria was the 13th state to deposit its instrument of ratification of the Protocol on Provisional Application (“PAP-Protocol”) of the UPC Agreement with the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. The Protocol has entered into force today in accordance with its Article 3(1).

In its decision T 1989/18 of 16 December 2021 the Board of Appeal may have provided an early Christmas present for epi members.

Further to the news item of 3 December, epi has been monitoring closely with EPO experts the progress of users who are switching from CMS to Online Filing 2.0.