Clifford Chance
German bills implementing the UPC currently put on hold by German Federal Constitutional Court
7 July 2017
Catching up with the latest development of the Unitary Patent Court ("UPC") system, the ratification process might have come to a preliminary halt in Germany. A pending constitutional complaint (the "Complaint") has been filed against the national bills ratifying the UPC agreement and implementing the UPC into German law ("UPC-law").
As a consequence, the German Federal Constitutional Court (the "Court") recently asked Germany's Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier not to sign the bills into law. As Germany's ratification is mandatory for the UPC system to come into force, the envisaged start of the UPC by the end of 2017 might likely be further postponed.
