Bulgaria Ratifies UPC Agreement

On June 3, 2016, Bulgaria deposited its instrument of ratification of the agreement on the Unified Patent Court (UPC).

Bulgaria is the 10th EU member state to complete the ratification process. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal and Sweden have also ratified the agreement.

The agreement for establishing the UPC was signed in Brussels on February 19, 2013. The UPC will be a court common to the contracting states and thus part of their judicial system. It will have exclusive competence with regard to European patents and European patents with unitary effect.

The 25 states that signed the agreement are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

The UPC Agreement enters into force on the first day of the fourth month after at least 13 member states have deposited their instrument of ratification, including the three states with most European patents (France, Germany and the United Kingdom).

Prepared by: Julia Taneva

For more information, please contact bulgaria@petosevic.com.

Source: The Unified Patent Court; National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria; Bulgarian PTO