Europe’s Unified Patent Court hit with further delay

German court pauses final ratification needed to launch European patent system after fresh legal challenges

Already much-delayed plans to set up a pan-European patent system have been hit by another setback as Germany, the last country that needs to ratify a bill setting up a European Unified Patent Court, delayed the process yet again.

Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court has asked the country’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, not to sign a bill ratifying German participation in the court, due to additional legal complaints being lodged against the process. Without German ratification, the court cannot be established.