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4 IPCLJ 1 (2019)

handle is hein.journals/ipclj4 and id is 1 raw text is: Levin: GERMAN RATIFICATION NOW AND A NEW PROTOCOL AGREEMENT BEFORE BREXIT I. Introduction As the looming date for the United Kingdom's (U.K.) to exit from the European Union draws nearer, the fate of the European Unified Patent Court (UPC) hangs in the balance. The complex bureaucratic, legal, and chronological hurdles to the creation of a single patent court in which to litigate and prosecute patents throughout European nations. All signatory nations of the Agreement on a UPC (AUPC) are members of the European Union. As members, the signatory nations are all bound by the rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ). However, when the U.K. leave the European Union on March 29, 2019; it may no longer be bound to ECJ's rulings. This lack of legal hegemony threatens the existence of the UPC before it is even fully formed. But, if the Germans can ratify the AUPC before the U.K. leaves the European Union, the UPC might be able to continue as planned and protect intellectual property rights in the lucrative U.K. market. This would incentivize utilization of this new IP specific court system. In addition to its substantial market, the U.K.'s participation is critical for other reasons. The U.K. is one of the three Member States of the European Union that produces the most European patent filings since 2012, when the AUPC was drafted.' Its importance within the patent structure of the European Union is so influential that in order for the European Patent Court to come into existence, the U.K. - in addition to Germany and France - had to ratify a treaty in order for the European Patent Court to be established in addition to ten other unnamed Member States.2 The U.K. is also slated to be the site of one of three specialized centralized courts of first instance in the European UPC. This court's location was brought into question by the June 23, 2016 referendum by the citizens of the U.K. to leave the European Union, commonly referred to as Brexit. The exit negotiations between the European Union and the U.K. will be finalized on March 29, 2019.3 The provisional separation agreement released in December 2018 does not mention the UPC.4 After the U.K. Brexits, there will be a statutorily mandated two-year exit of the U.K. from the European Union.5 In that Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, art. 89, § 2012, 16351/12. jL/Avvw.unified-atent- 2 id. 3 Alex Hunt & Brian Wheeler, Brexit: All you need to know about the UK leaving the EU, BBC News, Oct. 16, 2018, https./wkkwbbc o news/uk-politics-32810887 4 Draft agreement on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU as agreed at negotiators' level on 14 November 2018, including text of Article 132, U.K. - E.U., Nov. 25, 2018. Can be found at Peter C. Leung, U.K 's Exit Muddle May Help EU Unified Patent Court, Bloomberg (Sept. 6, 2016), htt s://wwwbna.con/us-exiinuddle-b73O144472351 1 Published by University of Cincinnati College of Law Scholarship and Publications,

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