The German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht – BVerfG) has published here its annual preview, i.e. “a list of important cases in which it intends to reach a decision over the course of the year”. The list does not include the two constitutional complaints (2 BvR 2216/20 and 2 BvR 2217/20) filed on 18 December 2020 against the draft legislation enabling Germany to ratify the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement and its Protocol on Provisional Application.  The previous complaint, filed in March 2017 and decided in February 2020, was included in the 2018, 2019 and 2020 lists – every year very few cases listed are actually heard and many are just carried over.

The indication therefore is that these UPC cases will not be decided this year (or even next year).  However, as reported here, at least one of the cases included an application for an interim injunction and the BVerfG had asked the Federal President to refrain from signing the draft legislation while it considered the application – when the BVerfG intends to do so is not clear.