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The UK and Germany still have work to do in order to fully sign off the Unified Patent Court before it can come into effect, as Paul England and Britta Bröker of Taylor Wessing report.
When, in January 2017, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Preparatory Committee stated that it was working towards a timetable in which the UPC would open in December 2017, it was clear that this timing was conditional on a number of factors. There were, however, two factors that the Committee could not have expected.
First, there was the snap general election in the UK, the result of which is likely to delay the opening of the UPC and the start of the unitary patent until February 2018, at the earliest. Second, there is now the request addressed by the German Federal Constitutional Court—the Bundesverfassungsgericht (BVerfG)—to the German president, to stay the signing of two of the bills necessary before the UPC system can be ratified in Germany.
This article explains the current status of the UPC and the unitary patent system and what these events might mean for it.
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Germany, UPC, PPI, PPA, Paul England, Britta Bröker, patent, Taylor Wessing, unitary patent, unified patent court
