UPC: time to finalise opt-out strategies

Before the UK electorate voted in June 2016 to leave the EU, the new Unified Patent Court (UPC) and unitary patent regime had seemed on course to be operational from mid-2017. While many thought the Brexit vote threatened to derail the whole project or, at least, to introduce a significant period of delay, the UK government took many by surprise in November 2016 when it announced that it would proceed with its preparations to ratify the UPC Agreement.