On 8 February the Privy Council formally approved the Unified
Patent Court (Immunities and Privileges) Order 2018. This
essentially completes the necessary legislative steps required
before the UK can formally ratify the UPC Agreement.
In order to ratify the Agreement, a formal letter signed by the
Foreign Secretary now needs to be deposited with the EU
Council's General Secretariat by the UK's Foreign
Office.
In normal times, this should be a mere formality. However, with
Brexit casting its shadow over everything on the legislative
agenda, we are in times that are far from normal. Despite the fact
that the UPC Agreement is (strictly speaking) an international
agreement rather than EU law, it remains an open question as to
whether the UK can legally remain a member of the UPC system after
Brexit, or even whether it will seek to do so.
