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Romania to join UPC in Autumn 2024
On 11 April 2024, Romania published its ratification of the UPC Agreement. The ratification now needs to be deposited with the EU. Then on the first day of the fourth month following deposit Romania will become the 18th full contracting member state of the Unified Patent Court (UPC).
Once Romania is a contracting member state European Patents registered for unitary effect (Unitary Patents) will have full effect in that country. The UPC has exclusive jurisdiction over Unitary Patents and will also have exclusive jurisdiction over all European Patents in Romania unless they have previously been opted out of the UPC.
Currently, six other EU member states are signatories of the UPC Agreement but have not yet completed ratification. These are Czech Republic, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Hungary and Slovakia. Ireland recently announced a delay in holding a referendum on ratification that had been expected to take place in June 2024.
UPDATE 4 June 2024: The UPC has now confirmed that Romania’s ratification has been deposited and that Romania will become the 18th full contracting member state of the UPC on 1st September 2024.