The law governed by a unitary patent as an “object of ownership” is the law of the EU Member State in which the applicant is domiciled or has his principal place of business at the time of filing the application (or, if not, the law of an EU Member State in which the applicant has an establishment). If the applicant has no establishment in an EU Member State, German law applies. If there is more than one applicant, the order in which the applicants are listed is relevant. The applicant concerned for determining the applicable law shall be the first applicant on the list who has a residence or principal place of business in a Member State. If none of the applicants does so, the applicant concerned shall be the first applicant on the list with an establishment in a Member State. The applicable national law affects issues such as the right of a co-owner to grant a licence without the consent of the other co-owners. It also defines which actions constitute a breach and which constitute limitations on the breach, although the extent to which this will be significant in practice is currently uncertain. For example, it is likely that the UPC will develop its own case law on the interpretation of claims and infringements without taking into account specific national legislation. 3. The court of the Contracting Member State in which the damage occurred shall have jurisdiction to settle the disputes referred to in paragraph 2. 1. The contractual liability of the Court of Justice shall be governed by the law provided for in Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 (Rome I), where applicable, or otherwise under the law of the Member State of the court seised, to the contract in question.

The Unified Patent Court is a common court for the participating Member States, composed of a court of first instance and a court of appeal. The Court of First Instance is composed of local services (which are set up in each Member State), regional services (which can be set up jointly by Member States that do not wish to set up their own local service) and the Central Chamber. (3) Without prejudice to Article 138(3) EPC, if the grounds for revocation concern only partially the patent, the patent is limited and partially revoked by a corresponding amendment to the claims. The Unified Patent Court is a common court of the Contracting Member States and is therefore subject to the same obligations under Union law as any national court of the Contracting Member States. (1) A Patent and Arbitration Conciliation Board (hereinafter referred to as `the Centre`) is hereby established. He is based in Ljubljana and Lisbon. 1. The Court of Justice shall be composed of both legally qualified and technically qualified judges.

Judges guarantee the highest standards of competence and have proven experience in the field of patent litigation. 3. In cases where this Statute provides that the Court of Appeal shall take a decision in plenary session, that decision shall be valid only if it is taken by at least 3/4 of the judges of the Full Court. The agreement was signed on 19 September. Signed in Brussels in February 2013 by 24 States, including all States participating in enhanced cooperation measures, with the exception of Bulgaria and Poland, while Italy, which has not acceded to enhanced cooperation measures, has signed the UPC Agreement. It is open to all Member States of the European Union (whether or not they have participated in the unitary patent), but not to the other Contracting Parties to the European Patent Convention. Bulgaria signed the agreement on 5 March after completing its internal procedures. [31] [32] [33] In the meantime, Poland has decided to wait for the new patent system to work before joining, fearing that it will harm its economy. [34] Although Italy did not originally participate in the Unitary Patents Regulation, it formally acceded to it in September 2015.

[35] Whatever the outcome of this procedure, accession to the UPC Convention will allow the Court to deal with European patents in force in the country. [36] Spain and Croatia (the latter would join the EU in July 2013) are the only EU Member States that do not participate in either the UPC or the unitary patent, but both countries can join the unitary patent system at any time. 4. Actions under Article 32(1)(b) and (d) shall be brought before the Central Division. However, where an action for infringement under Article 32(1)(a) has been brought against a local or regional authority between the same parties concerning the same patent, that action may be brought only before the same local or regional authority. .