The Council of the EU has recorded here that Sweden deposited its instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval of the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities (PPI) of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) with the Council’s General Secretariat on 8 December, and the PPI will enter into force for Sweden on 7 January 2023. Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have agreed to form a regional division of the UPC (the Nordic-Baltic regional division), mainly located in Stockholm. The PPI will confer legal status on the Court and certain privileges and immunities on the Court and its property, judges and staff to ensure its proper functioning.

This map shows the locations of the UPC and, as shown here, the PPI is already in force for some of these. It is already in force in Luxembourg for the Court of Appeal, and for the Court of First Instance it is in force for: France (for the central division’s seat and a local division), Germany (for a central division section and four local divisions) and Belgium, Finland, Italy, Netherlands and Portugal (which are each hosting a local division). However, it is not yet in force for Austria and Denmark (each scheduled to host a local division) and according to Slovenia’s declaration it is only in force for the Patent Mediation and Arbitration Centre and not yet for the local division. Nor is it yet in force for the three other countries of the Nordic-Baltic regional division; although the main location will be in Stockholm, the map also notes locations in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius.