With brexited UK announcing that it will not join Europe’s long-awaited Unified Patent Court (UPC), the establishment of an efficient pan-European patent litigation system faces ever‑mounting challenges. Last Friday, the German Federal Constitutional Court declared that the German Act of Approval of the UPC Agreement void due to violations of the principle of due process and the rule of law. Under the multinational UPC Agreement and related acts, the participation of both countries, in addition to France, is mandatory for the UPC to come into existence. As the hotspots of European patent litigation, these recent actions by the UK and Germany raise doubts whether the UPC will ever successfully launch.
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