Summary: Issues for the UPC have become too much for momentum to be gained anywhere across Europe, resulting in decay and perhaps abandonment

THE EPO NO longer speaks about the UPC. It has not said anything about 2 months of additional delays, knowing that it quite likely dooms the UPC as a whole (not just in the UK).

"The UPC won't go anywhere from here. It's too late and Battistelli is leaving."Don't ask Team UPC about it. It's an echo chamber where everyone is lying to everybody else; they tell each other what they want to believe rather than what is true.

Earlier this week WIPR wrote about the latest development; the article is quoting only the microcosm, not UPC opponents or any businesses (i.e. echo chamber, as usual). Here is the background to it all:

The German Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) has extended the comment period on the credibility of a challenge to the Unified Patent Court (UPC).

In June, the court announced it was delaying the ratification of the UPC Agreement because of a constitutional complaint brought by an individual.

According to German news site Juve, Düsseldorf-based attorney Ingve Stjerna filed the complaint.

Dr. Alex Robinson wrote about it as well. He has a stake in it and he explained that a "delay until 2019 or 2020 now looks likely, assuming that the BVerfG ultimately gives the UPC Agreement the OK..." (which is their best case scenario). To quote's Robinson's post:

After expiry of the deadline, the BVerfG will first of all decide whether the complaint is admissible. If the complaint is deemed admissible, a decision on the merits will follow. No firm timetable is known yet, but a decision on admissibility is expected in early 2018. If the case is admitted, a decision on the merits is unlikely before the second half of 2018 at the earliest. Given that some of the grounds of complaint include an allegation that the Agreement is contrary to European law, a referral to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling on points of European law cannot be ruled out. If this takes place, a delay until 2019 or even 2020 for the final decision might be expected.

"In other words, post-Brexit," Dr. Luke McDonagh remarked it.

The UPC won't go anywhere from here. It's too late and Battistelli is leaving.

"It's pretty astounding what Team UPC firms got away with. They manipulated the media, politicians, and even their paying clients. Now they have neither credibility nor UPC."David Pearce (better known as "Tufty the Cat" from back in his IP Kat days) has just said the UPC is "dead".

He said similar things before.

Robinson just refuses to accept this; he responded with "UK participation, at least, seems less likely by the day. And even if it goes ahead, without UK in European firms are questioning value [...] Don't want to prejudge merits of case. But a long delay seems assured, at least."

Just say it: the Unitary Patent is stuck and likely forgotten about. Good riddance. It was an affront to society. We wrote literally hundreds of articles about it. It's pretty astounding what Team UPC firms got away with. They manipulated the media, politicians, and even their paying clients. Now they have neither credibility nor UPC. ⬆