{"id":6636,"date":"2018-05-03T14:38:54","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T14:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sib.it\/?p=6636"},"modified":"2018-05-04T12:30:30","modified_gmt":"2018-05-04T12:30:30","slug":"united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"United Kingdom ratifies Unified Patent Court Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United Kingdom has ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement, but can it continue to be a member after exiting the European Union? The Chair of the court\u2019s Preparatory Committee is optimistic; meanwhile, still no date can be forecast for the court\u2019s opening, due to the pending appeal against Germany\u2019s ratification law. <\/em><\/p>\n

On 26 April 2018 the United Kingdom deposited its instrument of ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court<\/a>.\"Tribunale<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s ratification is a step towards the opening of the Unified Patent Court<\/strong>, a supranational tribunal with jurisdiction on European patents with unitary effect (also known as \u201cunitary patents\u201d) and eventually on European patents in general.<\/p>\n

According to the agreement, the court can only enter into force after ratification by France, the United Kingdom, Germany and ten other signatory countries.<\/p>\n

So far, 16 states have ratified the agreement<\/a>, but\u00a0 France was the only one among the three \u201ccompulsory\u201d countries to ratify shortly after signing the agreement.<\/p>\n

The United Kingdom\u2019s ratification was blocked pursuant to the British government\u2019s decision to respect the result of the referendum of 23 June 2016 in which a majority of voters opted for leaving the European Union.<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s ratification is still in a state of suspension while the Federal Constitutional Court examines an appeal against the ratification law.<\/p>\n

The United Kingdom is in the Unified Patent Court, but what about Brexit?<\/span><\/h2>\n

The deposit of the United Kingdom\u2019s instrument of ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement has been announced as a positive step forward for the court. However, there are strong doubts that the United Kingdom will technically be able to continue to be a member of the Unified Patent Court after its exit from the European Union.<\/p>\n

Articles 1 and 2 of the agreement expressly provide that only member states of the European Union can belong to the court<\/strong>, and in particular that the court shall be \u201csubject to the same obligations under Union law as any national court of the Contracting Member States\u201d<\/p>\n

Nobody has so far explained how the conflict between these provisions and a keeping a non-member state of the European Union in the Unified Patent Court will be solved.<\/p>\n

In the official announcement<\/a> given by the British Minister for Intellectual Property, the agreement is described more than once as an \u201cinternational agreement\u201d, clearly showing the intention of no longer considering the Unified Patent Court Agreement an agreement among European Union member states.<\/p>\n

It remains a fact, nonetheless, that participation in the agreement of a state that is not a European Union member requires an amendment of the agreement itself.<\/p>\n

Such an amendment would nullify all the ratifications that have already been finalised with the European Commission, which would bring back to square one a ratification process that requires parliament approval in all contracting states.<\/p>\n

It has taken over five years or just 16 states to ratify the agreement, out of a total 25 signatory states.<\/p>\n

Alexander Ramsay, Chair of the Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court, seems nonetheless to believe that changing the agreement is a viable solution.<\/p>\n

The Financial Times has reported<\/a> his comment on the news of the United Kingdom\u2019s ratification as: \u201cSome of the wording of the agreement will have to be amended after the UK leaves the EU but I would very much like Britain to participate in the UPC in the long term. The whole of Europe will benefit from the system having the broadest possible geographical coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is clear, at any rate, that the United Kingdom\u2019s permanence as a member of the Unified Patent Court after 29 March 2019\u00a0 is now officially a subject of Brexit negotiations.<\/p>\n

Germany and the Unified Patent Court: appeal against ratification law still pending<\/span><\/h2>\n

The United Kingdom\u2019s ratification does not remove all obstacles to the Unified Patent Court\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n

The ratification of Germany is as indispensable as those of France and the United Kingdom, but Germany\u2019s ratification law is on hold pending an appeal before the German Federal Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n

No date for the court\u2019s decision has been set, but it is possible that the German court will refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union, which would make it impossible for the appeal decision to be issued before mid-2019.<\/p>\n

Thus, in spite of the United Kingdom\u2019s ratification, it is still impossible at the moment to say when the Unified Patent Court Agreement will come into force.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United Kingdom has ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement, but can it continue to be a member after exiting the European Union? The Chair of the court\u2019s Preparatory Committee is optimistic; meanwhile, still no date can be forecast for the court\u2019s opening, due to the pending appeal against Germany\u2019s ratification law. On 26 April […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRegno Unito ratifica Accordo sul Tribunale unificato dei brevetti<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Il Regno Unito ha ratificato l\u2019Accordo sul Tribunale unificato dei brevetti, ma potr\u00e0 continuare a farne parte dopo aver lasciato l\u2019Unione Europea?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Regno Unito ratifica Accordo sul Tribunale unificato dei brevetti\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Il Regno Unito ha ratificato l\u2019Accordo sul Tribunale unificato dei brevetti, ma potr\u00e0 continuare a farne parte dopo aver lasciato l\u2019Unione Europea?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-03T14:38:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-05-04T12:30:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Justice.thmb_.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"263\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"160\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Laura Ercoli\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"Intellectual Property since 1882\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Justice.thmb_.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Justice.thmb_.jpg\",\"width\":263,\"height\":160,\"caption\":\"Milan Unified Patent Court\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/\",\"name\":\"Regno Unito ratifica Accordo sul Tribunale unificato dei brevetti\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-03T14:38:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-04T12:30:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/#\/schema\/person\/3988cde84153da4b745510f0712d395b\"},\"description\":\"Il Regno Unito ha ratificato l\u2019Accordo sul Tribunale unificato dei brevetti, ma potr\u00e0 continuare a farne parte dopo aver lasciato l\u2019Unione Europea?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"United Kingdom ratifies Unified Patent Court Agreement\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/#\/schema\/person\/3988cde84153da4b745510f0712d395b\",\"name\":\"Laura Ercoli\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40352aead1e319e41371a554b61ab9b8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40352aead1e319e41371a554b61ab9b8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Laura Ercoli\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/author\/lercoli\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Regno Unito ratifica Accordo sul Tribunale unificato dei brevetti","description":"Il Regno Unito ha ratificato l\u2019Accordo sul Tribunale unificato dei brevetti, ma potr\u00e0 continuare a farne parte dopo aver lasciato l\u2019Unione Europea?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Regno Unito ratifica Accordo sul Tribunale unificato dei brevetti","og_description":"Il Regno Unito ha ratificato l\u2019Accordo sul Tribunale unificato dei brevetti, ma potr\u00e0 continuare a farne parte dopo aver lasciato l\u2019Unione Europea?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/","article_published_time":"2018-05-03T14:38:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-05-04T12:30:30+00:00","og_image":[{"width":263,"height":160,"url":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Justice.thmb_.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Laura Ercoli","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/","name":"","description":"Intellectual Property since 1882","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Justice.thmb_.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Justice.thmb_.jpg","width":263,"height":160,"caption":"Milan Unified Patent Court"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/","name":"Regno Unito ratifica Accordo sul Tribunale unificato dei brevetti","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2018-05-03T14:38:54+00:00","dateModified":"2018-05-04T12:30:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/#\/schema\/person\/3988cde84153da4b745510f0712d395b"},"description":"Il Regno Unito ha ratificato l\u2019Accordo sul Tribunale unificato dei brevetti, ma potr\u00e0 continuare a farne parte dopo aver lasciato l\u2019Unione Europea?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/flash-news\/united-kingdom-ratifies-unified-patent-court-agreement\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"United Kingdom ratifies Unified Patent Court Agreement"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/#\/schema\/person\/3988cde84153da4b745510f0712d395b","name":"Laura Ercoli","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40352aead1e319e41371a554b61ab9b8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40352aead1e319e41371a554b61ab9b8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Laura Ercoli"},"url":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/author\/lercoli\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6636"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6636"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6669,"href":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6636\/revisions\/6669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sib.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}