The Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) has today published a short update, in which it notes that the pending case in the German Federal Constitutional Court will cause delay to Germany’s ratification of the UPC Agreement (UPCA) and the Protocol on Provisional Application (PPA) and concludes that it is currently difficult to predict any timeline for the start of the new system.  The Committee reports that otherwise there has been good progress in ratification of both the UPCA and the PPA.  The UPCA has been ratified by 14 countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden).  As both Germany and the UK must ratify, and progress is being made in some other countries, the Committee expects closer to 20 participating countries when the system starts.  The PPA has been ratified by 11 countries, and (as reported here) Germany and one other country must ratify in order for the Provisional Application Phase to start.