Further Blow for UPC

EPG News 27 März 2020

In a further blow for the Unified Patent Court(UPC), the German constitutional court has today announced that the German ratification of the UPC Agreement is void.

The German constitutional court have today upheld a constitutional complaint filed in 2017 that the ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA) breached the German constitution. In Decision 2 BvR 739/17 the court held that the failure to ratify the UPCA with a two-thirds majority in the German parliament was unconstitutional and the ratification is therefore void.

The court ruled inadmissible further complaints that the judges of the UPC would not be sufficiently independent and that the UPCA breached EU law.

This comes as another blow to hopes that the UPC might soon open – coming soon after the announcement by the UK Government that the UK will not seek involvement in the UPC after Brexit. While the possibility of Germany re-ratifying the UPCA exists, it remains uncertain whether there will be the political will to now do so.

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