The Netherlands deposited its instrument of ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPC) with the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU yesterday. This notification follows the recent promulgation of the relevant Dutch legislation, and is required for the ratification to have effect.  The Council published this step here, which shows that the Netherlands has become the 11th country to do so, the others being Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Sweden, and France (one of the three mandatory ratifying countries). Therefore, if both Germany and the UK (the other two mandatory ratifying countries) were to also ratify, there would be the requisite 13 ratifications and the new system would come into effect three months after the second of those deposits (provided the UK had also ratified the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities of the UPC, see here).  In reporting the Netherlands’ ratification, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs stated that ‘Germany is likely to follow shortly’ (although the necessary legislation has yet to complete its passage through parliament) and, regarding the UK’s ratification, stated ‘What the exact consequences of the announced “Brexit” for the date are still unclear’.