A single court ruling is directly applicable in the member states that have ratified the UPC Agreement (UPCA).

[5] Provisional application of the UPC Agreement was triggered on 19 January 2022 to enable preparation for the proper functioning of the court after entry into force.

Appeal against decisions of the European Patent Office (EPO) regarding the grant of unitary effect is also possible at the UPC.

Registration of unitary effect is to be organised by the European Patent Office and requires less translations and a single renewal fee for the whole territory.

The Court of First Instance has a central division with its seat in Paris, and thematic sections in Munich (mechanical engineering cases) and Milan.

[8] The distribution of cases within the central division is set out in Annex II of the UPCA, which forms an integral part of the Agreement.

A change to the UPC Agreement entered into force on 1 July 2024 to accommodate the replacement of London with Milan as thematic section, while moving part of the expected case load to Munich and Paris.

[20] Training of judges takes place in Budapest,[21] and Lisbon and Ljubljana host the seats of a patent mediation and arbitration centre.

[39] Before the central division, proceedings take place in the language in which the patent was granted (English, German or French).

The committee held its first meeting in March 2013 and was initially headed by Paul van Beukering and later by Alexander Ramsay.

[80] Regardless of the outcome of that process, becoming a party to the UPC agreement will allow the court to handle European patents in force in the country.

The agreement entered into force for the first group of 17 ratifiers on June 1, 2023, the first day of the fourth month after all of these three conditions were met:[4][20] Romania became the 18th member on 1 September 2024, following its ratification in May 2024.

[5] For signatories ratifying or acceding after the entry into force of the agreement, their membership takes effect on the first day of the fourth month after the member state deposits its instrument of ratification or accession.

[4] For operations of the Unified Patent Court to commence, the agreement shall have entered into force, and practical arrangements have to be made.

The protocol was signed by eight states on 7 October 2015: Denmark, Germany, Hungary, France, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Provisional application started on 19 January 2022[1] after 13 states (including Germany, France and the United Kingdom) ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement or indicated to have finished their parliamentary process.

[48] Beside the completion of the work of the Preparatory Committee, the EPO Select Committee performs preparatory work for implementation of the unitary patent, to be "completed in due time before the entry into operation of the UPC", as unitary patent regulations apply from the date that the UPC agreement enters into force.

Upon receiving the complaint, the Federal Constitutional Court asked German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier not to sign the law.

[180] The German government introduced a new bill to ratify the agreement, with the required two-thirds majority, to Parliament in June 2020.

A referendum was initially scheduled for the autumn of 2013,[187] but it was subsequently postponed to an unscheduled date after the 2014 European Parliament election.

[188][189] Richard Bruton, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation confirmed in May 2014 that a constitutional referendum would be held but that the timing had not been decided by the government.

[192] In January 2024, Simon Coveney, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, published a general scheme for a constitutional amendment, with the government proposing a referendum to be held in June 2024, to coincide with the 2024 European Parliament election.

[195] In the United Kingdom, there is no requirement for a formal law approving of treaties before their ratification, but the Ponsonby Rule is that they are laid before Parliament with an explanatory memorandum,[196] which the government did for the UPC Agreement on 23 June 2013.

[198] That means that ratification of the UPC agreement will not take place before Parliament's approval of the related implementation orders.

[57] The government presented the results of its technical review consultation in March 2015, and on its basis, it began the process to complete the final version of its draft order to Parliament.

[199] In June 2015, the UK Intellectual Property Office stated, "It is the Government's intention for our domestic preparations [for ratification of the UPC] to be completed by Spring 2016".

[201] A second Statutory Instrument is needed to endorse the UPC Protocol on Privileges and Immunities, which the UK signed on 14 December 2016.

Participating in a court that applies EU law and [that is] bound by the CJEU is inconsistent with our aims of becoming an independent self-governing nation.

Spain and Italy both filed individual actions for annulment of the unitary patent regulation with the European Court of Justice (CJEU cases C-274/11 and C-295/11) in May 2011, arguing the use of enhanced cooperation was improper and the introduced trilingual (English, French, German) language regime system for the unitary patent, which they viewed as discriminatory to other EU languages, would be non-compliant with the EU treaties because of distorting competition, causing a misuse of Council powers and functioning detrimental to the internal market.

[208][210] In March 2013, Spain filed two new actions for annulment (CJEU cases C-146/13[211] and C-147/13[212]) of (part of) the two unitary patent regulations, arguing that there is a "misapplication of the Meroni case law" in the delegation of administrative tasks to the European Patent Office, as its setting and distributing of renewal fees are not subject to the necessary EU supervision.