Latvia and Estonia make progress on UPC approvals

The Latvian parliament is looking to add to a law enabling the ratification of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) by trying to confirm the Nordic-Baltic regional division.

In March, Latvia adopted the law, will take effect in January 2018.

The parliament is also currently working on draft legislation for a Nordic-Baltic regional division within the UPC, but this has yet to go through its second reading.

In 2014, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania announced plans for a Nordic-Baltic division of the UPC, in a decision that was praised by Michel Barnier, who was European Commissioner for internal market and services at the time, for “allowing resources to be pooled most effectively”.

The announcement stated that proceedings will be heard in English and that the seat and sub-registry will be in Stockholm.

In June this year, the Estonian parliament also introduced a law enabling the ratification of the UPC agreement, and it was passed last month. The parliament also introduced another law, which has already been signed by the Estonian president Kersti Kaljulaid, to allow for relevant amendments to be made.

The second law has yet to be published in the Gazette. Once this happens it will become law ten days later.

In February, Italy became the 12th country to ratify the agreement, joining Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden in rubber-stamping it.

Source: WIPR

Editor: Camila