Since the British people voted to leave the EU, the future of the UK's position within the Unified Patent Court (UPC), and the UPC's entire future, has been in doubt. This week the British government appears to have put the final nail in the coffin with the publication of its mandate for negotiating a future relationship with the EU.
In paragraph 5 of the paper it is confirmed that the UK will not agree to any obligations which require our laws to be aligned with the EU or under the control of the CJEU. Since the UPC will be a European system, and since the CJEU will function as the highest appeal court for that system, it appears as though the possibility of the UK remaining within the UPC is all but over.
5. It is a vision of a relationship based on friendly cooperation between sovereign equals, with both parties respecting one another’s legal autonomy and right to manage their own resources as they see fit. Whatever happens, the Government will not negotiate any arrangement in which the UK does not have control of its own laws and political life. That means that we will not agree to any obligations for our laws to be aligned with the EU's, or for the EU's institutions, including the Court of Justice, to have any jurisdiction in the UK.
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