Unitary Patent (UP) & Unified Patent Court (UPC)

Since June 2023, companies have been able to protect their inventions in 18 EU countries as a Unitary Patent, a European patent with unitary effect.

The 18 countries participating to the Unitary Patent system are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and Romania.

When the European Patent Office (EPO) grants a patent, it’s up to the company to choose between a Unitary Patent and separate country-specific European patents for the 17 EU countries.

The lifecycle costs of a unitary patent can differ significantly from those of a traditional European patent. The key factors in cost comparison are the chosen target countries, their number, and the patent’s duration.

For nationally validated European patents, annual fees must be paid separately to each country. In contrast, the unitary patent has a single annual fee. The level of annual fees for a unitary patent corresponds to the combined annual fees currently paid to Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.

Validating a European patent involves additional country-specific costs compared to a unitary patent, such as publication fees and possible translation costs. Generally, it may be expected that a unitary patent is more cost-effective during its lifecycle than a traditional European patent when the patent is to be validated in three or more countries.

The Unified Patent Court is a court common to 18 EU member states in which the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court is in force. The court can render decisions concerning all member states bound by the agreement. Legal proceedings in the Unified Patent Court require a combination of technical and legal expertise, as well as experience in patent litigation.

Following the commencement of the operation of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), patent disputes may be resolved either before national courts or the UPC. What are the differences in handling a patent dispute before the UPC compared to the national court?