Before the sunrise period of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) starts on 1 March 2023, the UPC has announced that users may from 13 to 24 February practise and test the CMS sunrise functionalities. (During the sunrise period European patents may be opted out of the UPC’s jurisdiction before the UPC Agreement enters into force and the Court opens, and users may apply to register as a representative before the UPC.) Practice will be in the CMS test environment, which from 13 February can be accessed via https://cerus.unified-patent-court.org/login and is a copy of the CMS production environment that will be launched when the sunrise period starts. Support will be available from the UPC IT team via the contact form as a “CMS SUNRISE PRACTICE – IT ISSUE” and the following information should be included: test case description, expected results, and version of the CMS.

Testers will need to create a new user account and the UPC will publish a guide to doing so. Strong authentication and digitally signed documents will be required. The UPC published in December details on strong authentication, including in How to find a suitable provider for the CMS’s authentication an open-ended list of providers who have informed the UPC that they meet the required technical standards. Information previously provided included technical details of the two certificates required to access the CMS, i.e. a Client Authentication Certificate (contained in a smart card or USB token) and an Electronic Signature Certificate, and how to obtain and test them: New authentication and electronic signature. How to authenticate to the CMS system?