Friday 3 April 2015

Belgians challenge national ratification of UPCA

PatLit has learned from an informed source that in Belgium the ratification statute for the Unified Patent Court Agreement seems to have been challenged in that country's Constitutional Court. This information can be found on the weblog of ESOMA, the European Software Manufacturers' Association, here

There would appear to be three bases for this challenge:
  • language discrimination against Dutch-speaking Belgian citizens, which is forbidden by the Belgian constitution, 
  • the Rules of Procedure for the UPC and possible future amendments can pass into law without being confirmed by the Belgian legislator 
  • the European Patent Office lacks judicial responsibility, in contradiction of the Rule of Law.
At least this third plea has a familiar ring to it ...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

> the Rules of Procedure for the UPC and possible future amendments can pass into law without being confirmed by the Belgian legislator

My humble opinion is that it's a strong point.
If one looks at the Rules of Procedure, on their substance, they resemble rules of national civil procedure. Usually, such law is created by a national legislator.

William Bird said...

In Belgium the act approving the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court was published in Belgisch Staatsblad on 9 September 2014.

Any annulation appeals against acts that contain the approval of a treaty must be filed within 60 days of the publication of the act. (Art. 3 §2 Bijzondere Wet 6 januari 1989 op het Grondwettelijk Hof).

According to information on the website of the Constituional Court, this appeal was filed on 10 March 2015, so it is late filed.