The Preparatory Committee met again on 24 and 25 February 2016 in order to advance the various projects underway, with a view to finalising the different texts relating to the Unified Patent Court (UPC) by summer 2016.
Among the significant advances, the Committee agreed on a text stating the“Rules on Court fees and recoverable costs” linked to the UPC, in which it should be noted that the official fee for opting out of the exclusive jurisdiction of the UPC has been removed.
If this text is ultimately adopted, it means that there will be no fee to pay to request an opt-out under the terms of Article 83 of the Agreement relating to the UPC, nor presumably in order to opt again for the exclusive jurisdiction of the UPC.
During this meeting, the Preparatory Committee also worked on the arbitration rules that will be used before the Patent Mediation and Arbitration Center, and which have for the first time been made public.
In parallel, the ratification process of the Agreement relating to the UPC is also advancing, it has been indicated that Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia should soon ratify the agreement, without counting the UK and Germany, who plan to ratify the agreement in 2016.
