Although, as reported here, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) recently provided information on the grounds of the pending challenge to the constitutionality of the German legislation enabling the ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPC), there has been no information on the identity of the challenger.  However, today the German legal news publication, JUVE, has reported here  that the person who filed the challenge is Dr Ingve Stjerna.   Dr Stjerna is a  Düsseldorf intellectual property law attorney and his publications include The European Unified Patent Court: what can still go wrong? and The Parliamentary UPCA ratification proceedings in Germany (this article opening with ‘The Parliamentary proceedings on the ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (“UPCA”) in Germany have revealed a state of political affairs which should cause concern to each citizen’).

Dr Stjerna reported last week that the BVerfG had sent the constitutional complaint to several parties to the proceedings and to third parties for their comments, but that this had no implications for whether the complaint would be accepted for a decision or for its prospects.   JUVE reports that recipients of the complaint include the Federal Government, the German Bar Association (Deutscher Anwaltverein, DAV) and EPLAW (European Patent Lawyers Association).