By Deborah Kirk, Charles Courtenay, Christian Engelhardt, Yasmina Borhani and Andrea Stout

Germany’s constitutional court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht, has requested that the German President hold off on signing the legislation ratifying the Unified Patent Court (UPC) and the Unitary Patent (UP) following a constitutional complaint from an unnamed individual. The court did not disclose the nature of the complaint and only stated that it will investigate it as soon as possible in order to avoid delays. Delays in Germany will considerably affect the implementation of the UPC across Europe as Germany is one of three counties (including the United Kingdom and France) required to ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPC Agreement), the international agreement which brings these measures into effect. Ten other member states must also ratify the agreement.

The legislation, which will implement the European legislation at the national level in Germany, has already been approved by the other legislative bodies, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, and is now only awaiting the signature of the German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. A court spokesperson said that Steinmeier has agreed to delay signing the legislation until the investigative ruling has been completed, which has been described as the “typical” approach.