The Netherlands have ratified the UPCA

The Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs has just announced that the Netherlands has ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement. This means that the Netherlands joins the 10 states that have already ratified the UPCA agreement. Before the Unitary patent and the UPC can enter into force 13 ratifications will be needed, including the French, German and the UK ratifications.

France ratified the agreement in 2014, and Germany is well on its way to do so. The vote to leave the EU in UK however has made the situation with UK ratification uncertain, and this will of course delay the entry into force of the system, which for a while was foreseen to take place in the beginning of 2017.