Unitary Patent

The unitary patent is a European patent issued by the EPO (European Patent Office) which, at the request of its holder, has a unitary effect for the territory of the 25 Member States participating in enhanced cooperation: an action for infringement or a revocation action or even an action for a provisional injunction may then be brought for all these States simultaneously.

In concrete terms, once the European patent has been granted, the holder can opt for “unitary” protection by filing a specific request: from then on, the patent automatically covers all the countries that have ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court and unitary effect. Thus, instead of multiple and sometimes costly national validations (translations, administrative formalities, etc.), the applicant benefits from centralized protection and potentially unified litigation before the Unified Patent Court (UPC).

The main aim of the unitary patent is to simplify and reduce post-grant procedures, cutting the costs of repeated validations and limiting the risk of jurisdictional differences. In practical terms, this title does not require traditional national validation formalities (or only light formalities), and offers uniform coverage in the participating Member States, together with more flexible dispute management (a single action before the UPC instead of multi-jurisdictional litigation). The implementation of this unitary patent is part of the “Patent Package”, a set of European texts (including Regulation (EU) No. 1257/2012) organizing both unitary protection and the competent jurisdiction (UPC). However, each Member State retains the freedom to ratify the agreement or not, so that not all of them are currently covered. Ultimately, the unitary patent constitutes a significant change in the patent system in Europe, in a quest for simplification, harmonization and cost reduction for innovators.