The UK IP Minister, Amanda Solloway, in a letter dated 24 March 2020, in reply to a request from the House of Lords EU Justice Sub-Committee’s Chair, confirmed that “the Government will not be seeking the UK’s continued participation in the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court.”
The reasons for that decision lies in the fact that: “Participating in a court that applies EU law and bound by the CJEU is inconsistent with our aims of becoming an independent self-governing nation”.
She referred to the government’s approach to future relations with the EU published on 27 February, ruling out any obligation for UK laws to be aligned with the EU’s or for the EU’s institutions (including the CJEU) to have any jurisdiction in the UK, and explained that continued participation in the UPC would mean “ceding jurisdiction over key patent disputes in the UK to a court that is bound to apply and respect the supremacy of EU law, including judgments of the CJEU” would be incompatible with that approach.
Letter of the UK IP Minister on Unified Patent Court – 24 March 2020
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