It appears that yesterday, as recorded here, Austria finally deposited with the Council of the EU its instrument of ratification of the Protocol on the Provisional Application (PPA) of the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA). This means that sufficient countries have now met the requirements for the PPA to commence (see here).  In this provisional application phase, the UPC’s legal capacity and organisational capability is established and final preparations for the opening of the Court can be made. The Preparatory Committee has estimated that these preparations may take about 8 months, with the work including assembly of the Court’s governing bodies, adoption of all the secondary legislation, and finalisation of the budget, the IT systems and the recruitment of the judges. The EPO will also make final preparations for the introduction of the unitary patent.