Draft legislation for ratification of UPC on German parliament’s agenda

08.02.2017

Germany’s draft legislation authorising ratification of the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court (UPC) is listed on the agenda (here) for next week’s sitting (15-17 February) of the Bundestag (German parliament).  As reported here, this draft legislation, submitted to the Bundesrat (Federal Council) on 9 December 2016, is identical to a previous draft. The Bundesrat has until this Friday to raise any objections, but is not expected to do so; it raised no objections to the previous draft and this recommendation to its members is that no objection should be raised.  Assuming no objections, the draft legislation will be formally introduced into the Bundestag.  Because the Bundestag had already debated the previous draft (on 23 June 2016), its Council of Elders (a cross-party joint deliberative body) has decided that the new draft should pass through the ‘simplified procedure’ (as noted on the agenda), and therefore the Bundestag will not debate the draft in its first reading next week but simply refer it to the Committee for Legal & Consumer Affairs.

Richard Pinckney

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