The Unitary and Unified Patent Courts aiming at reducing the costs of obtaining and enforcing European patents

• Understanding future options for European patents,
• Improving filing strategy of patents in Europe,
• Understanding legal framework and judicial system of European patents.

The current European patent system provides that a granted European patent corresponds to a bundle of identical national patents in the designated states. They are subject to specific administrative steps in the designated states, e.g. the filing of a translation of the patent in one of the national language and payment of renewal fee every year. This means that obtaining a large territorial coverage with a European patent is expensive.

Also, enforcing a European patent in several designated states requires specific actions with the national judicial system of each of these states. The Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Courts are a European initiative aiming at reducing the costs of obtaining and enforcing European patents. It will provide for European patents a unitary effect in 25 European countries, i.e. avoiding the current administrative requirements (translation and renewal fee) at the national level, and providing a unitary legal effect.

An Agreement on a Unified Patent Court has been set up but needs to be ratified for the Unitary Patent System to enter into force. The ratification process is in progress but has not yet completed.

Expert : Didier Lecomte (Lecomte & Partners)

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