In the report (here) of its meeting in Paris on Monday, the Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) states: “The Committee took the opportunity to discuss the road ahead given the uncertainty that has arisen following the referendum in the UK. A revised time plan will be published in due course.”   Five member states reported in the meeting that they would be in a position to be able to ratify by January 2017.  Although those countries are not specified, they almost certainly include Slovenia (here) and Italy (here).  Most intriguing is the possibility that this might include Germany (here), given that recently the German government has been distinctly quiet about its plans for ratification. (France and the requisite number of 10 other countries here have already ratified, leaving the UK and Germany as the two crucial states due to their status as mandatory ratifying countries along with France.)  Regarding the Committee’s preparations for the UPC:

• Rules of Procedure. Minor amendments agreed and consolidated version to be published shortly.
• Judicial and other staff. Proposals on judicial and staff regulations endorsed in general, with a few technical issues to conclude.  An update on judicial recruitment will be available next week.
• IT. IT Working Group’s paper presented on future work to finalise the IT system.

The Committee will meet again in early December 2016.