Nonprofit Argues Germany Can't Ratify the 'Unitary Patent' Because of Brexit

Long-time Slashdot reader zoobab shares this update from the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, a Munich-based non-profit opposing ratification of a “Unified Patent Court” by Germany. They argue such a court will “validate and expand software patents in Europe,” and they’ve come up with a novel argument to stop it.

Germany cannot ratify the current Unitary Patent due to Brexit…” The U.K. is now a “third state” within the meaning of AETR case-law, [which] makes clear that:

“Each time the Community, with a view to implementing a common policy envisaged by the Treaty, adopts provisions laying down common rules, whatever form they may take, the Member States no longer have the right, acting individually or even collectively, to undertake obligations with third countries which affect those rules or alter their scope …”

This practically means that the ratification procedure for the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court must now come to an end, as that Agreement no longer applies due to the current significant changes (i.e. Brexit) in the membership requirements of its own ratification rules.
The nonprofit also argues that the Unitary Patent “is a highly controversial and extreme issue, as it allows new international patent courts to have the last word on the development and application of patent law and industrial property monopolies including, more seriously, the validation and expansion of software patents, that is the key sector on which whole industries and markets depend.”

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