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Organisations publish submissions on the German constitutional challenge to UPC legislation

25.01.2018

The following four organisations have published the statements they have submitted to the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) on the case challenging the constitutionality of the German legislation enabling ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPC): DAV (DeutscherAnwaltVerein, German Bar Association), BRAK (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer, Federal Bar Association), GRUR (Deutsche Vereinigung für gewerblichen Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht, German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property) and EPLIT (European Patent Litigators Association).  The opinions (DAV here, BRAK here, GRUR here and EPLIT here) vary in the amount of detail and focus, but the conclusion of each is, in essence, that the complaint should be rejected as inadmissible and/or is unfounded.   The opinions give the public more insight into the grounds of the complaint, the BVerfG having provided only a summary (reported here).

The complainant reported in October 2017 here that the BVerfG had invited 27 parties (parties to the proceedings and third parties) to submit comments on the complaint.  As reported here, the deadline for submissions was extended from 31 October to 31 December 2017.  Kluwer IP Law has today reported here that, according to a BVerfG spokesman, the BVerfG has received seven submissions, the three not mentioned above being from the German government, the EPO and EPLAW (European Patent Lawyers Association).  The BVerfG spokesman also informed Kluwer IP Law that no date for the decision has been scheduled yet.

Richard Pinckney

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