The European Union (“
EU”) has shaped and developed Intellectual property (“
IP”) policy extensively over the years. IP law in EU member states is today largely a matter of EU law. Key areas of IP are dominated by EU rights and institutions. Separating the United Kingdom (“
UK”) out of those systems can be a complicated matter. As in many other areas, the UK and the EU handled the separation in very different ways.
In principle, the implications of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU in relation to IP are pretty obvious and unequivocal. The UK ceases to be part of the EU trademark and design systems (managed by the EUIPO) which means that from now on trademark and design registrations have to be secured locally. More generally, EU law and the decisions of the EU courts no longer apply in the UK and in the future the UK can develop and revise its laws independently. Those are the simple facts.
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UPC scenarios: optimists look to summer 2022
28-01-2021
31-07-2018
While it is true that the Unified Patent Court’s latest hurdle could delay the project for years, ratification is more likely, argues Wouter Pors of Bird & Bird.
On December 18, 2020, the German Federal Council (
Bundesrat) unanimously approved the ratification of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement (UPCA), which concluded the parliamentary ratification process for the second time.
Shortly afterwards, two complaints were filed in the Federal Constitutional Court (
Bundesverfassungsgericht), one by Düsseldorf lawyer Ingve Björn Stjerna and one by Munich-based non-profit Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII). Stjerna had filed the complaint against the first attempt to ratify the UPCA in 2017, which led to a judgment on February 13, 2020. The court held that the necessary quorum was not present in parliament when the law was approved. That error has now been repaired.
UPC faces new delay
The fabled unitary patent and concurrent Unified Patent Court look set to be delayed again, at least in the short term, following a request from Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court to pause the final ratification step.
On Wednesday, January 13, the FCC asked Germany’s president Frank-Walter Steinmeier to refrain from signing the country’s ratification into law while it considers two new constitutional complaints challenging ratification that were filed with the court in December.
The court will now decide whether to throw out the complaints as inadmissible or unfounded in the short term, or consider one or both of the challenges. If the FCC opts for the latter option it could severely delay the UPC coming to fruition, or even put an end to the plans.