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Legal Alert: Start of Unified Patent Court Sunrise Period Postponed to 1 March 2023

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On 5 December 2022, the president of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Court of Appeal, Klaus Grabinski, and the acting chairman of the Administrative Committee of the UPC, Johannes Karcher, announced an adjustment of the timeline of the UPC.

According to the announcement, the start of the Sunrise Period is postponed by two months to 1 March 2023.

The initial roadmap foresaw 1 January 2023 as the beginning of the Sunrise Period, with an entry into force of the UPCA on 1 April 2023. The additional time is intended to allow future users to prepare themselves for the strong authentication which will be required to access the Case Management System and to sign documents. As all other preparatory work appears to be on track and in line with the published roadmap, no further delay of the start of the UPC beyond 1 June 2023 is expected.