Slovenia ratifies the Protocol on Provisional Application and the UPC Agreement Last Friday, on 15 October 2021, the Slovenian government deposited its instrument of ratification for the Protocol on the Provisional Application of UPC Agreement (PAP-Protocol) and the UPC Agreement itself, bringing the Unified Patent Court one step closer to its launch. Thanks to the Slovenian ratification and following the recent ratification of the PAP-Protocol by the German government, one last ratification (or expression to be bound) is now necessary in order for the Court to enter the final phase of its set-up.The deposit of the last remaining ratification of the PAP-Protocol (or expression to be bound) will trigger the start of the period of provisional application (PAP) and therefore the implementation of the UPC as an international organization. During this phase of provisional application, the following will take place, in particular: the adoption of the secondary legislation and the Court’s first budget, the completion of the electronic case management system including stress testing, the process to select and appoint the judges of the Court.