The UK has today notified the council secretariat about their withdrawal of their ratification of the UPCA and the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities of the Unified Patent Court. The UK considers that the withdrawal shall take effect immediately.

The UK has already announced earlier this year that they do not longer wish to be a party to the UPCA. However, until now, it was not clear when the UK will proceed with the withdrawal.

The Preparatory Committee of the UPC will now discuss the consequences of the UK withdrawal and will see how to move forward. It will then publish a further announcement.

The UK ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA) on 26th April 2018 despite the Brexit vote and the currently ongoing negotiations for the UK to leave the UE.

Only the German ratification is now missing for the system to go alive, as France has already ratified the UPCA. However, Germany’s ratification has been further delayed since the constitutional complaint against the ratification of the UPCA (End of March 2017). If the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) decides not to admit the complaint, the German ratification procedure can resume (within approx. 6 months), still possibly before Brexit day (29^th March 2019). If the FCC admits the complaint Decision, the decision will not be expected before end 2019 (may be even much later if the FCC refers the matter to the European Court of Justice), and the UK will have left the EU by that time.