By order of June 23, 2021, the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) rejected two applications for preliminary injunction against the Act of Approval that was adopted on December 18, 2020, for the purposes of ratifying the Agreement of 19 February 2013 on a Unified Patent Court (UPC Act of Approval).
This decision was highly expected because the process of ratification of the UPC Act of Approval and thus, the establishment of the UPC has been delayed until the ruling of the Court.
The violation of fundamental rights alleged by the plaintiffs is considered by the FFC insufficiently asserted and motivated.
The plaintiffs failed to demonstrate why and how the Act of Approval, in its organisational structuring of the Unified Patent Court and in the legal status granted to the judges, could violate the principle of the rule of law established in Article 20(3) of the German Constitutional Law in a way that would interfere with the principle of democracy.
This decision seems to clear the way for the deposit of the German instruments of ratification.
The many hurdles against the implementation of the UPC and the Unitary Patent seem to be slowly overcome.
Some say that the new system could be in force no later than 2022.