France takes the next step in ratification of unitary patent

According to World IP Review the National Assembly has ratified the agreement on a unified patent court. President Hollande must now sign the agreement.

After signing, the ratification must then be registered with the Council of the European Union. At present only Austria has taken this final step. As reported earlier also Malta appears to have ratified the UPC. At present neither France nor Malta is listed as ratified on the EU ratification page.

On the website of the Assemblée nationale, I find the following text: Est autorisée la ratification de l’accord relatif à une juridiction unifiée du brevet (ensemble deux annexes), signé à Bruxelles, le 19 février 2013, et dont le texte est annexé à la présente loi.

 Which I translate into:

After the Malta problem, will we get the Croatia condition?

As discussed yesterday, EP patent applications filed before March 1, 2007 may not be eligible for Unitary effect. Croatia is another state that may cause the same problem. Croatia joined the EPC on January 1, 2008. Because Croatia joined the EU last year (2013), they are not currently signatories to the UPC agreement.

Malta to ratify Unitary patent agreement (?)

Last week at IIR's Unitary Patent Package conference, I heard the rumor that Malta has ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court.

The ratification has not yet appeared on the EU website that tracks the unitary patent ratification progress. On the website of the Maltese Parliament, I can find what appears to be the minutes of 21 January 2014 (Sitting Number 110).