NIPC Law

German Constitutional Court at Karlsruhe by Tobias Helfrich - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42560 Jane Lambert German Constitutional Court  (President Voßkuhle and Constitutional Court Judges Huber, Hermanns, Müller, Kessal-Wulf, König, Maidowski and Langenfeld) Re Unified Patent Court Agreement    2 BvR 739/17 Order of 13 Feb 2020 (20 March 2020) On 19 Feb 2013 the governments of 25 European Union member states including the United Kingdom signed the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court  ("the Unified Patent Court Agreement").  That agreement provided for a single patent court for the territories of all the contracting countries to be known as the Unified Patent Court ( "UPC" ) .  The UPC would resolve disputes relating to European patents in the contracting countries' territories including European patents covering all the contracting countries as a single territory to be known as "unit...

Jane Lambert A rather more interesting Brexit Briefing this month  because the UK has ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement.  The article sets out the background to ratification and considers whether it will make a difference.  Also discussed are the proposals to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland and indications that HMG will accept the backstop arrangements for birder checks between Great Britain and both parts of the island of Ireland set out in the draft withdrawal agreement notwithstanding political and constitutional challenges to which that could lead. Finally, there is the agenda for discussions on the future partnership between the UK and EU after Brexit which would include services and some encouraging remarks about the city of London from Monsieur Barnier at the Eurofi High Level Seminar in Sofia on 26 April 2018. More

Mark Twain 1835-1910 Source Wikipedia Jane Lambert "James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London, but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness; the report of my death was an exaggeration." (Mark Twain) The last time I wrote about the Unified Patent Court and unitary patent  I was pessimistic on whether the United Kingdom could remain a party to the Unified Patent Court Agreement  after 29 May 2019 and also  on whether that agreement could survive the UK's departure (see What, if anything, can be salvaged from the UPC Agreement?   26 Jan 2018). On balance I am still pessimistic but I have not yet given up hope on either score. There are four reasons for not giving up hope completely all of which have arisen since my last article:- The Privy Council made  The Unified Patent Court (Immunities and Privileges) Order 2018  SI 1988 No 184 on 8 Feb 2018 which clears t...

Author Mikelo  Licence  Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.0 Generic Source:  Wikimedia Commons This month's Brexit briefing focuses on the publication by the European Commission of a draft agreement for the withdrawal of the UK from the EU and the Euratom. Although it has not yet been presented to the British government and there has already been some grumbling from the PM and others it is unlikely to be rejected out of hand. There were some welcome signs of pragmatism in the PM's speech at the Mansion House on 2 March 2018. There were also some crumbs of comfort for the ratification of the UPC Agreement and perhaps even continued British participation in the Court after Brexit. Read more