Summary: Additional barriers to the UPC in Germany; it seems as though things just get worse -- not better -- for the UPCA (Unified Patent Court Agreement) over time

TECHRIGHTS does not condone/endorse political parties and certainly does not support AfD (Alternative für Deutschland). It has, however, been mentioned by Mathieu Klos‏ that this nationalist party is becoming aware of the UPC and is opposing it. There was a similar situation involving MP Carswell (when he was in UKIP, after he had left the Conservatives and before he left UKIP to become independent). The link between UKIP and AfD is well documented.

Being parties that mostly/entirely oppose the EU, this should not be entirely surprising. UPC, unlike the EPO/EPC, is quite strongly connected to the EU.

"Being parties that mostly/entirely oppose the EU, this should not be entirely surprising."Even Bristows' Richard Pinckney wrote about it yesterday: "The Bundestag (German parliament) has announced here that on 15 March 2018 it will discuss a motion by the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany) political party calling for the repeal of two acts enabling Germany to participate in the Unified Patent Court (UPC) and unitary patent system."

See? So the UPC is only going backwards in Germany; many people now understand the sham vote by very few politicians who had personal stakes in the outcome. Pinckney went even further yesterday. He wrote about Stjerna's constitutional complaint:

Dr Stjerna, who filed in the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) the complaint against the legislation enabling Germany to ratify the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPC), has published here an update, reporting which parties the BVerfG invited or allowed to comment, and which of those did so.

Here is his update dated one week ago:

In August 2017, the FCC had served the constitutional complaint on both chambers of Parliament (Bundestag and Bundesrat), the Federal Chancellery, the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection and all State governments, giving them the opportunity to comment until 31/12/2017 – until 31/01/2018 in case of the Bundestag – (sec.s 23(2), 94(4), 77 of the Federal Constitutional Court Act [BVerfGG]).

Within the same time limit, the Presidents of the Federal Bar Association (BRAK) and of the German Association of Lawyers (DAV) and – in reply to their prior written request – the Presidents of the European Patent Lawyers Association (EPLAW), of the European Patent Office (EPO), of the German Association for Industrial Property and Copyright (GRUR), of the European Patent Litigators Association (EPLIT) and of the Confederation of German Industry (BDI) were allowed to comment pursuant to sec. 27a BVerfGG.

A statement was filed by the Bundestag and the Federal government as well as by BRAK, DAV, EPLAW, EPA, GRUR and EPLIT.

It is worth noting that the EPO/Team Battistelli says absolutely nothing about the UPC nowadays. In fact, over the past month it has mentioned UPC only by retweets but never directly. It retweeted this promotional tweet earlier this week. It's about an event stuffed with Battistelli's friends. I joked with the EPO about it: "Does he [Yann Ménière] come with strings (so that Mr. Battistelli can hold him while he speaks)?"

"It is worth noting that the EPO/Team Battistelli says absolutely nothing about the UPC nowadays."We already wrote about those attending this event, notably Jérôme Debrulle. By the time this event starts the UPC will have already died due to a combination of Brexit, not to mention the FCC and purely technical/legal grounds like a sham vote, judges lacking independence etc. Battistelli too will have left the Office. ⬆