Friday, March 20, 2020

Breaking News: German Constitutional Court Declares Law Approving UPC Void

Hat tip to Martin Stierle, who forwarded me a copy of the decision declaring the German law approving the Unified Patent Court void (here).  I've only skimmed the first couple of pages myself thus far, but there is further coverage on JUVE Patent (which explains that because law would have resulted in a change to the German constitution, it needed a 2/3 vote of a quorum in the German Bundestag; the law passed unanimously, but there wasn't a quorum), IPKat, IP Watchdog, and Bloomberg.  According to JUVE, it may be possible to obtain the needed vote when the Bundestag can meet again, but raising a quorum under present circumstances (coronavirus) would be a challenge.  Looks like there is a dissenting opinion, which I understand is permissible for the Constitutional Court in Germany, by three of the judges.  Recall that the U.K. a few weeks ago announced it would not go forward with the UPC post-Brexit.

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