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Parties shall be represented. The representative may be

            a lawyer authorized to practice before a court of a Contracting Member State or

            a European Patent Attorney who has acquired additional appropriate qualifications such as a European Patent Litigation Certificate (Article 48 of the UPC Agreement, Rule 8.1 Rules of Procedure of the UPC).

Yes, the holder of an exclusive license is entitled to bring actions before the UPC under the same circumstances as the patent proprietor, except where the licensing agreement provides otherwise. The patent proprietor must be given prior notice (Article 47(2) of the UPC Agreement).

A holder of a non-exclusive license is not entitled to bring actions before the UPC, unless the patent proprietor is given prior notice and in so far as expressly permitted by the license agreement (Article 47(3) of the UPC Agreement).

In any action brought by a licensee, the patent proprietor shall be entitled to join the action (Article 47(4) of the UPC Agreement).

If a representative of a potential defendant has given an electronic address for service to the claimant’s representative then he/she will be sent a “friendly email” notifying him of the action and giving instructions to access the CMS to formally accept service on behalf of said client. If the representative has not provided such an address or if he fails to respond to the friendly email service of proceedings the potential defendant will be effected by other means ,eg registered post, again with instructions how to access the CMS. For the purpose of serving a Statement of revocation or a Statement of declaration of non-infringement the representative of the claimant shall also include professional representatives and legal practitioners as defined in Art. 134 EPC who are recorded as the appointed representative for the patent in the Register for unitary patent protection.

The mandate may be signed in ink by the person granting the authority. The mandate should be signed electronically by the person authorized to lodge the application.

Rule 5.3 (a) requires the postal and where applicable, electronic address of the proprietor and Rule 5.3 (b) requires the electronic address of the representative.

 The date of receipt, i.e. the date you file your request with the Registry.

Registration have been opened as of the sunrise period. Registration is to be done via the CMS.

No, such confirmation is not required. It is sufficient to tick the box in the CMS that you are entitled to act as a representative pursuant to Art. 48(1) or (2) of the UPC Agreement.

As a first step, it is necessary to have an account on the CMS. The procedure for obtaining an account is set out on the website of the UPC. After the creation of the account, it is possible to file a request for registration as a representative. Please refer to the guidelines included in the CMS.. The documents you will need are a signed application to register and proof that you have an additional litigation qualification such as the European Patent Litigation Certificate (see Art. 48(2) of the UPC Agreement).