Patents
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What is the Unitary Patent Package?
The Unitary Patent Package consists of the Unitary Patent
(UP) and the Unified Patent Court (UPC).
The UP (or more formally the European Patent with Unitary
Effect) is a new patent right for Europe, which will provide
a single patent right covering up to 26 of the current 28
European Union countries. The UP will initially extend to
those countries that have ratified the relevant UP/UPC
legislation before the start date (and may cover around
18 countries), but eventually future UPs will cover all 26
signatory countries, when the remaining countries have
completed the ratification process.
The Unified Patent Court is a new Court for patent matters
in Europe. It will be the only court that is able to deal with
matters relating to the infringement and validity of UPs.
It is intended that in time the UPC will also have exclusive
jurisdiction over traditional “European” patents which cover
a UPC member state, though there will be a transitional
period of at least 7 years in which traditional (i.e. non-
unitary) European patents can also be litigated through the
existing national courts. Alternatively European patents can
be opted-out of the jurisdiction of the UPC completely.
How do I obtain a Unitary Patent?
UPs are obtained by filing a conventional European patent
application and selecting the UP option when the application
is granted. Nearly all European patent applications that are
pending when the UP comes into effect will be eligible to
elect the UP option, though old cases with a filing date
before 1 December 2006 will not be eligible.
