UK formally withdraws UPC ratification
The UK has formally withdrawn its ratification of the agreement to establish the Unified Patent Court (UPC), spelling a definitive end to British involvement in the project.
News first broke at the end of February that the British government had decided to pull out of the UPC, despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson having signed the agreement himself as foreign secretary.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s office at the time said that “participating in a court that applies EU law and is bound by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is inconsistent with our aims of becoming an independent self-governing nation”.
Today, July 20, in a statement published by the UPC Preparatory Committee, it was confirmed that the UK had withdrawn its ratification.
The committee, describing the news as “disappointing”, said it would now convene to discuss the consequences of the UK’s withdrawal.
UK minister responsible for IP Amanda Solloway has also submitted a written parliamentary statement to the House of Commons.
Solloway wrote: “The UK considers that its withdrawals shall take effect immediately and that it will be for the remaining participating states to decide the future of the UPC system.”
That future is far from certain, with Germany having been forced to delay its ratification of the agreement due to a complaint over its constitutionality.
The country’s Federal Constitutional Court upheld the complaint in March, meaning Germany’s approval of the agreement was rendered null and void.
The German government has since submitted new legislation, which it believes solves the constitutional problem and will allow the country to ratify the deal.
EU Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton has insisted publicly that the UPC should go ahead despite the setbacks.
And his colleague Amaryllis Verhoeven, head of the Commission’s IP unit, has predicted that the UPC will be in place by the end of 2021.
Verhoeven has also suggested that a unitary supplementary protection certificate (SPC) should follow the UPC as the next major reform to Europe’s patent system.
“Once we have a unitary patent, we would also like to move to a unitary SPC … the problems that we see currently in the patent system are also replicated there—too many divergences,” Verhoeven said in June.
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