A Unified Patent Court – from Poland’s perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyse selected legal issues that arise from the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court and, in particular, the questions which emerge when it comes to the legal status of that Court in light of the European Union law, or doubts regarding the compatibility of the UPC Agreement with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.

First, the content of the UPC Agreement and the conditions precedent to its entry into force are presented. After that, the status of the UPC is analysed against the background of its provisions describing the Unified Patent Court as a ‘court common to the Contracting Member States’ and ‘part of their judicial system.’ The analysis refers to opinion 1/09 of the Court of Justice of 8 March 2011 on the previously envisaged agreement aimed to constitute a European and European Union Patents Court.

The question of permissibility, or rather constitutionality, of vesting the competences of the national judiciary to the jurisdiction of the UPC has been raised, together with a number of other reservations concerning the compability of the UCP Agreement with Poland’s constitutional order and contained in it standards of fundamental rights protection, such as the right to a fair trial (i.e. in the context of the language of proceedings before the UPC).