On 18 October 2016 the Higher House of the Italian Parliament approved the draft bill on ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA), with 161 votes in favour, 30 against and 7 abstentions. The approval by the Higher House comes only a few weeks after the same bill was approved by the Italian Chamber of Deputies on September 15th, and a few days after the opinion of Commission on EU affairs of the House commented here.
The bill is now ready to move to the final stages of the ratification process and to be signed into law by the President of the Republic. This approval comes in a moment of great uncertainty on the future of the system, due to the turmoil caused by the UK referendum.