Following the EPO Select Committee’s meeting this week, in which it adopted a series of rules (relating to unitary patent protection, fees, distribution of fees, and budgets/finance), the EPO has announced that the unitary patent is “ready to go”.  Benoit Battistelli, the EPO President, declared: “With the adoption of these rules today, the preparations for the unitary patent are complete. We are now legally, technically and operationally ready to deliver the unitary patent. The only remaining step is the opening of the Unified Patent Court and the finalisation of the ratification process at national level. We hope this will happen in 2016…”  Regarding those steps, this week the UPC Preparatory Committee published (here) an interview by Euroforum with the Committee’s new Chair, Alexander Ramsay, in which he confirmed that the Committee are hoping to conclude their work in mid-2016, following which (and sufficient national ratifications) the provisional application period (of at least 6 months) will start before the UPC Agreement comes into force.