New UPC complaints filed in Germany

Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court has confirmed it has received two complaints against the country’s Unified Patent Court legislation.

In a statement sent to Managing IP, the court confirmed: “Regarding the Act on the Agreement of February 13 2013 on a Unified Patent Court, two constitutional complaints have been filed and are pending.”

However, the statement added that a decision date was not known. Neither the identity of the plaintiffs nor the grounds of the complaints are currently available.

In March this year, a long-awaited FCC ruling declared that the act approving the UPCA had not been signed off by a required two-thirds majority in the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament. That ruling was based on a complaint filed in 2017 by German lawyer Ingve Stjerna. 

At the end of November this year, the Bundestag approved the act with the necessary qualified majority.

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), a group that opposes software patents, has been urging its community of followers to donate to a crowdsourced fund to help launch a new legal challenge.

The FFII and Stjerna have not responded to requests for comment about whether they are behind either of the new complaints.

At the moment, it is not clear if the FCC will accept the filings and German ratification of the UPC will be delayed again.

Managing IP will provide more analysis in due course.

To view our recent UPC coverage, click on the links below:

German Federal Constitutional Court declares UPC approval void

UPC is ‘a done deal’, say IP counsel

Confirmed: UK to shun unitary patent and UPC

UPC: In-house wary despite flicker of hope