Just one application instead of a lot of effort and hassle in each individual country – the EU unitary patent should make it easier for companies with their inventions. For years the project hung by a thread because of Germany.
The European unitary patent is intended to save companies time and money – and now Germany is no longer standing in the way of getting started after years of stagnation.
The Federal Constitutional Court rejected two new urgent motions because of the proposed Unified Patent Court, as announced on Friday in Karlsruhe. The plaintiffs had not sufficiently demonstrated a violation of their fundamental rights, and their actual constitutional complaints were therefore inadmissible. It is therefore also certain that there will be no more examination in the main proceedings.
This means that Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier can now draft the law passed by the Bundestag and Bundesrat in November and December. The judges of the Second Senate asked him in January to wait until the urgent motions had been decided. The Federal President complied with this.
The unitary patent, in which all EU states except Spain and Croatia participate, is intended to reduce the costs of registering an invention by up to 32,000 euros, according to the EU Commission. The idea is that every owner of a European patent can submit a request for unitary effect centrally. This applies in one fell swoop to all participating countries. The tedious national certification in each individual country is no longer necessary.
German approval is a mandatory requirement for starting the system. Because of lawsuits in Karlsruhe, the project was last on hold for years. The convention has been in place at European level since 2013.
Initially, after a long review, the constitutional judges declared a first law null and void in February 2020 because far too few MPs were present at the 2017 Bundestag vote. As a result, the Bundestag and Bundesrat had passed the law again at the same word in late 2020. But before the turn of the year, the two new constitutional complaints with urgent motions had been received.
The lawsuits were not directed against the Unitary Patent as such, but only against part of the system, the Unified Patent Court. It is supposed to resolve disputes about European patents and have exclusive jurisdiction over them.
The plaintiffs see the rule of law and their fundamental right to effective legal protection violated and had complained of violations of Union law. Unsuccessful: The Federal Government is assuming that the Convention “does not contain any regulation of the relationship between Union law and national constitutional law that goes beyond the status quo,” the court said.
Uniform European patent protection has been in planning since the mid-1970s. Subject to German approval, the European unitary patent should start in early 2022.
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
