Italy, France, Germany agree on competences central division seats Unified Patent Court

Given the political support that the UPC enjoys, that is not going to happen. A more interesting question is what will happen if and when the CJEU is asked to consider questions that concern the legal basis for the UPC as currently constituted. For those of us who are keen on the rule of law being upheld, it is impossible to conceive how the current legal basis for the UPC might withstand even the most casual of (impartial) judicial scrutiny. Thus, for the UPC to survive, ether its proponents must come up with some truly creative and audacious legal arguments, or the CJEU must find a combination of smoke and mirrors to bamboozle most of the legal profession into believing that everything is awesome. My bet is on BOTH of those possibilities playing out in practice ... though I have to say that the CJEU has a poor record when it comes to writing convincing arguments on complicated and controversial matters. So perhaps the more likely outcome is that we get an incomprehensible mishmash of Delphic utterances from CJEU that omits the crucial reasoning for the decision. On the other hand, the UPC as currently constituted could significantly undermine the integrity of the EU legal order. So perhaps we should not yet rule out the possibility that the CJEU gives it the thumbs down ... though I think that the chances of that happening are low, as it would be a disaster of epic proportions for the Commission. I should also mention national courts, which could perhaps be persuaded to get involved if parties use them to challenge the jurisdiction of the UPC. However, my suspicion is that they will be reluctant to get involved, especially as doing so could easily end up with them reaching decisions that seriously damage the Commission's shiny new toy. Remember, where there is a will there is a way ... and where there is a political will, then there is often no way for dissenters to turn the tide.