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9 March 2018Patents

German parliament to discuss far-right UPC repeal request

Far-right German political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has called for the re-debate and repeal of the laws enabling Germany to ratify the Unified Patent Court (UPC), a motion which is scheduled to be discussed at the Bundestag on March 15.

Germany’s parliament announced the AfD’s motion on Wednesday, March 7.

The AfD has called for Germany to repeal the 2013 Convention on a Unified Patent Court, which enables Germany to ratify the UPC Agreement, and also the Patent Law Amendment Act, which allows the amendment of national law in order to implement the unitary patent system.

The implementation of the UPC Agreement has so far been delayed by Germany and the UK. Both countries must ratify the agreement before the UPC can come into force.

Last month the German Constitutional Court agreed to hear a complaint regarding the legitimacy of the UPC following a complaint filed last June, and Germany’s presidential office has agreed not to sign the law on ratification until the matter has been dealt with. The date of the hearing has yet to be confirmed.

The UK’s ratification of the UPC was delayed by the Brexit vote in 2016. However, last month the UK took the penultimate step necessary to pass the Unified Patent Court (Immunities and Privileges) Order 2017.

Matthias Weiden, associate in Bird & Bird’s Düsseldorf office, said the AfD’s initiative is probably quite unlikely to succeed.

Speaking to WIPR he explained that the AfD is generally strongly opposed to European integration, so he speculated that the prospect of creating another international court with jurisdiction over German companies “goes against their core principles” as a nationalist, or isolationist, party.

The party’s request for re-debate will definitely take place, as it is now listed on the official agenda of the Bundestag (for March 15), Weiden explained. The AfD is proposing legislation which would essentially “undo” what has already been adopted, he added.

The party’s substantive objective is likely to be the Bundestag adopting a new, and legally separate, repeal law. “I agree with the vast majority of commentators in assuming that the Bundestag is highly unlikely to adopt such a repeal law,” Weiden said.

The AfD has 92 out of 709 seats in the Bundestag, and “there is no indication I am aware of which would suggest that the majority coalition” (which currently has 399 seats) would change its “thus-far mostly favourable views on the UPC”, he continued.

Weiden added the caveat that “what actually will transpire on March 15 remains of course technically unclear, for now”.

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More on this story

Patents
22 February 2018   The German Constitutional Court has agreed to hear a constitutional complaint disputing the legitimacy of the Unified Patent Court.
Patents
16 March 2018   German members of parliament (MEPs) yesterday debated a motion to repeal legislation which allows Germany to ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement, after far-right political party Alternative for Germany called for the re-debate and repeal of the laws.
Patents
19 March 2018   WIPR readers are confident that legislation which allows Germany to ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement will not be repealed, despite a political party’s arguments for re-debate and repeal of the laws.