To recap, the European Parliament, after many years of discussion, voted positively on 11 December 2012 on two draft EU Regulations on a unitary patent for Europe.
The European Countries also agreed on an international agreement creating the Unified Patent Court ("UPC"), which is currently, ratified by all the Member States except Spain.
Spain claims before the CJEU that the content of the agreement on the UPC affects the Union's powers and confers on a third party the power to determine unilaterally the application of the regulation.
However, on 18 November 2014, the Advocate General dismissed the Spanish claims. If the CJEU follows the Advocate General's opinion, this would be a major step toward the creation of the unitary patent protection system.
As a final remark, the UPC agreement will enter into force after thirteen Member States including UK, France and Germany ratify it. As of today five countries have ratified it.
