Clarify UK’s future in UPC, Lords ask No. 10

A UK parliamentary committee has asked the government to clarify its position on the Unified Patent Court (UPC), after reports that the UK will no longer seek to participate in the project.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office confirmed to IP media outlets,  including WIPR, last month that the UK government would not be seeking participation in the UPC.

But the government has yet to comment publicly to that effect or issue an official statement.

Yesterday, March 10, the House of Lords’ EU Justice sub-committee wrote to the UK’s IP minister Amanda Solloway MP, asking her to clarify the government’s position.

The committee heard evidence from Julia Florence, past president of the UK  Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) and barrister Daniel Alexander QC.

Alexander told the Lords he had learned of the government’s intention not to participate in the UPC from “someone from the Intellectual Property Office”.

“I expressed some views on that call as to whether it was right to do it in this way, rather than have a formal announcement and explanation, but that’s not really for me to say,” Alexander said.

The UK ratified the UPC Agreement in 2018, with then-foreign secretary Boris Johnson signing the treaty on behalf of the government.

But the UK’s participation in the new court has remained uncertain as it will involve accepting, to some extent, the jurisdiction of Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) precedent.

Although the UPC is separate from the EU, the UK’s ruling Conservative Party has consistently pledged to break any jurisdiction of the CJEU over UK laws and UK courts as part of the Brexit process.

The UK formally left the EU on January 31 this year, but remains in a transition period until the end of the year.

The future of the UPC project itself is largely dependent on a complaint pending at Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court, which has so far blocked Europe’s biggest economy from ratifying the agreement.

The German court is set to hear the case this year.

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