Unitary Patents (UP) in practice
In all cases, the examination procedure of a European patent application is the same. When the European patent is granted, the patent proprietor has the option to select a Unitary Patent. This results in a Unitary Patent that covers all of the Unitary Patent Court (UPC)-participating states with a single patent, that can be supplemented with a bundle of national patents in non-participating states.
Use of a unitary patent is not obligatory. It remains possible to cover any desired selection of states by validating the patent nationally in just those states. You can read more about the Unitary Patent system here.
Unitary Patent Disputes
In the participating UPC states, European patents fall within the exclusive competence of a central patent court: the Unified Patent Court. The court hears revocation and infringement cases and has several local and regional divisions and three central divisions; in Munich, Milan and Paris. However, during a transition period of 7 years, the national patent courts of the participating UPC states also have competence.
Participating states
The Unitary Patent system covers Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Romenia, Slovenia and Sweden.
Note that the UPC Agreement covers only EU states, but not all of them.
Non-participating states party to the original European Patent Convention are not involved in the system. This list includes Spain, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway and Turkey. Unitary patents are not valid in those non-participating states and the UPC has no jurisdiction there.
NLO Experts on Unitary Patent
Our colleagues Paul Clarkson, Rolf Suurmond, Aleksandra Zwolinska, Stijn van Dongen and Marta Alvarez Guede follow the recent developments on the Unitary Patent closely. Please contact them for any specific questions related to the Unitary Patent and the UPC.
