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ARTICLE · 25 SEPTEMBER 2015

Belgian Constitutional Court Rejects Action Against UPC Ratification

Eubelius
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Yesterday, the Belgian Constitutional Court has set aside the excitement and/or fear of opponents and supporters of the unitary patent package with a two-pager judgment.

BelgiumIntellectual Property
Pieter Callens
Pieter Callens

The European patent community and especially the people involved in the preparation of the Unified Patent Court were stirred up in March 2015 by an action launched before the Belgian Constitutional Court. On 10 March 2015 the Belgian non for profit association ESOMA (European Software Market Association) had launched a nullity action against the Belgian law of 27 May 2014 regarding the ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court. ESOMA had based its action on three pleas. First, ESOMA argued that the ratification of the UPC agreement would lead to a discrimination based on language because the ratification would lead to the applicability of the Regulations on the Unitary Patent and the language regime of these Regulations would discriminate the Dutch speaking population of Belgium. Secondly, the ratification would violate the principle of legality because the Rules of Procedure of the UPC shall be adopted by the administrative committee of the UPC and not by

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