Italy to ratify UPC in 2016?

The Italian Government, on Friday, approved the draft bill for the ratification and implementation of the agreement establishing the Unified Patent Court (UPC).

With approval of the draft bill the matter now passes to the Italian Parliament for ratification. We understand that the target deadline for Italian completion of ratification is by the end of 2016.

As it stands 9 states have completed ratification. Should Italy achieve ratification by the end of the year and be joined in that regard by the UK and Germany (as predicted by many) then only one further state would need to ratify for the UPC, and with it the Unitary Patent, to come into being.

As has been the case for some years it is still a case of watching this space. It does, however, seem that the long running saga of the Unitary patent is drawing to a (positive) conclusion.

As things develop we will post further updates.

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