The Unitary Patent
The Unitary Patent is a novel patent right that will serve as an alternative to traditional European patents and national patents. The Unitary Patent allows applicants to obtain patent protection in all participating Member States at once. This will erase various administrative hurdles and lower the costs for applicants seeking patent protection in multiple countries.
What is a Unitary Patent?
The Unitary Patent is a new type of patent right that offers applicants the possibility of obtaining cross-border patent protection in all Member States of the UPC system with one single application. Contrary to traditional European patents, Unitary Patents, once granted, will provide uniform protection across all participating Member States. Thus, the Unitary Patent differs from the traditional European patent in the post-grant landscape, as it does away with the requirement that the patent must be validated nationally in individual EPC Member States before it takes effect in each country.
In this sense, the Unitary Patent system will be similar to the system known from the Regulation on the European Union trademark (Regulation 2017/1001).
How to obtain a Unitary Patent?
The Unitary Patent is granted through the existing European patent granting system. Accordingly, the examination and grant procedure (the pre-grant phase) for Unitary Patents will be identical with the existing procedure for traditional European patents. Hence, applications for a Unitary Patent are submitted to the European Patent Office (the "EPO") where they will be subjected to a detailed examination assessing whether a patent can be granted on the basis of the provisions set out in the European Patent Convention.
Having obtained grant of a European patent, proprietors can request that the patent is registered with unitary effect (thereby becoming a Unitary Patent). Such a request must be filed within one month from the date on which the European patent has been formally granted. With that proviso, patent proprietors may request unitary effect for any granted European patent, provided that the patent has been granted with the same set of claims in all Member States. If the patent proprietor does not submit a request for unitary effect, the patent will continue as a traditional European patent.
The EPO will have sole competence to administer Unitary Patents, both pre- and post-grant, i.e. their examination, grant, maintenance and management. The centralisation of the administration of Unitary Patents is expected to enable proprietors to manage their patent portfolios more effectively. The intention is that this will lead to more efficiency and reduced administration costs for patent proprietors.
The annual renewal fees payable to the EPO for a Unitary Patent were set to correspond to the costs associated with maintaining a traditional European patent in Germany, France, the Netherlands, and the UK (which will not now be covered by a Unitary Patent).
Uniform protection
Unitary Patents provide uniform, cross-border protection in all Member States participating in the UPC system (currently 17 Member States). The scope of the exclusive right conferred by a Unitary Patent, including the legal remedies available, is identical in all participating Member States.
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Der er nu, efter lang tids venten, udsigt til, at den fælles europæiske patentdomstol (Unified Patent Court, UPC), som Danmark...
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Do you have any questions on this topic? Don't hesitate to contact Partner Nicolai Lindgreen, Partner Nicolaj Bording, Attorney Emil Petri, Attorney Mathias Rønø Bove or Assistant Attorney Victor Fasmer Henum.
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