German constitutional court upholds EU unitary patent court

The court in Karlsruhe rejected two petitions seeking an injunction against a law passed by the German parliament last December to enact an EU agreement reached back in 2013 to set up a unified patent court. The plaintiffs had argued that the EU-wide patent regime violated Germany's constitutional right to democratic self-determination and that the 2013 agreement had wrongly asserted the primacy of EU over national law.

Germany's constitutional court on Friday struck down attempts to halt the creation of a unified framework for granting and enforcing patents in the European Union, finally clearing a roadblock that held up the reform for years. The court in Karlsruhe rejected two petitions seeking an injunction against a law passed by the German parliament last December to enact an EU agreement reached back in 2013 to set up a unified patent court.

The plaintiffs had argued that the EU-wide patent regime violated Germany's constitutional right to democratic self-determination and that the 2013 agreement had wrongly asserted the primacy of EU over national law. "The constitutional complaints in the main are inadmissible because the plaintiffs have not adequately demonstrated the possibility that their fundamental rights would be violated," the court said in a statement.