Top German court rejects key UPC complaints
The Unified Patent Court (UPC) project has cleared a major hurdle after Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court rejected attempts to block Germany from ratifying the law.
The court confirmed this morning, July 9 that it had rejected two applications for a preliminary injunction against the ratification of the UPC. The court said the two constitutional complaints were “inadmissible as the complainants failed to sufficiently assert and substantiate a possible violation of their fundamental rights”.
Germany’s participation in the project has been one of the last main remaining obstacles to the UPC becoming operational. The agreement to establish the court requires Germany’s ratification to take effect.
The complaints were filed by Düsseldorf-based lawyer Ingve Stjerna and the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure. Stjerna had previously successfully blocked the ratification of the UPC agreement, forcing the German Ministry of Justice into a rewrite of the laws. The Federal Constitutional Court upheld Stjerna’s first complaint in March 2020, on the grounds that the Bundestag hadn’t approved the law with the required two-thirds majority. The German parliament then approved an amended law last November with a supermajority.
Stjerna and the FFII then filed another pair of complaints, adding further delays to the long-awaited project. With the court having now rejected these complaints as inadmissible, the path is clear for Germany to ratify the agreement.
It has been a tumultuous year for the UPC, particularly after the UK confirmed it would no longer participate in the wake of Brexit. The UK government identified the application of Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) case law as “inconsistent with our aims of becoming an independent self-governing nation”.
Despite these setbacks, the project has retained the backing of policymakers across Europe. Amaryllis Verhoeven, head of the European Commission’s IP unit, had predicted that the UPC could be formally approved by the end of 2021. It remains to be seen whether all remaining steps towards ratification can be cleared this year.
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