The Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) held its 17th meeting in Stockholm last Thursday.  This was its first meeting following the results of the UK’s referendum on its European Union membership.  With the endorsement of the Committee, the Chair (Alexander Ramsay) acknowledged that work related to the technical implementation of the UPC should continue as normal.  This would include the completion of the judicial recruitment process (which closed yesterday).  In a separate statement the Chairmen of the UPC Preparatory Committee and the EPO Select Committee stated that:

 “At this stage it is too early to assess what the impact of this vote on the Unified Patent Court and the Unitary Patent Protection eventually could be. This will largely depend on political decisions to be taken in the course of the next months. It has to be recalled that for the time being the United Kingdom remains a Member State of the European Union and a Signatory State of the Unified Patent Court Agreement.”

In line with the above position, the UPC Preparatory Committee agreed the following:

• The Code of Conduct for representatives who appear before the UPC – here.
• Consequential amendments to the Rules of Procedure to reflect the agreement on court fees – here.
• Endorsement of a number of papers setting out the rules on financial management during the provisional application period, corporate function structure and regulations relating to judges and staff.
• Endorsement of the draft UPC budget and recognition that the budget will be a “living document” subject to amendment before its adoption by the Administrative Committee.

The next meeting is set to be held in early October 2016.