On 23 October 2013, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs introduced a Bill before the Senate authorising the ratification of the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court. The Bill was introduced under the procedure accélérée (expedited procedure), which limits the number of times a Bill passes between the two chambers (the Assemblée Nationale and the Sénat) and is usually used to speed up a Bill’s progress; this is noteworthy for implementation of the UPC regime as France is one of the three mandatory ratification countries.