Articles
UPC Prep Comm – Further progress, yet further delays
September 2017
The UPC Preparatory Committee has posted an update on the “Progress on the Unified Patent Court Project”.
Good progress was reported on the one hand, with 14 full ratifications and more in the pipeline. The UK for example, has laid a draft Scottish Statutory Instrument before Scottish Parliament – “The International Organisations (Immunities and Privileges) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 2) Order 2017”. The purpose of the instrument is to provide legal privileges and immunities on the Unified Patent Court its Judges, Representatives and Staff, so far as this is within devolved competence of the Scottish Parliament. The SI is one of the last remaining legislative steps before the UPC Agreement can be ratified by the UK; it cites one of its objective as “being done in order to help secure compliance by the United Kingdom with its international obligations”.
On the other hand, it was also acknowledged that due to a case currently pending in the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) concerning the law passed by the German Parliament on the implementation of the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court (UPCA), delays to the German ratification of the UPCA and the Protocol on Provisional Application are expected.
The update ended by recognising that it is now “difficult to predict any timeline” for the UPC coming in to being.