The European Unitary Patent will enter into force on 1 June 2023. At the same time, the Unified Patent Court will start its work.
The German Federal Government deposited the instrument of ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPC) with the Council of the European Union on 17 February 2023. This step marks the completion of the necessary ratification procedure for the Unitary Patent Package to become effective. The Unitary Patent will enter into force on 1 June 2023.
On the same date, the Unified Patent Court will also start its work, which will be responsible for all actions for infringement or invalidation of Unitary Patents.
The Unitary Patent can be applied for all European patents granted on or after 1 June 2023. It is a European patent with unitary effect in all member states participating in the Unitary Patent system (beware: not in all member states of the European Union!).
Currently, the following 17 member states are participating in the Unitary Patent system: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden.
Greece, Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Cyprus, which have signed but not yet ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, are expected to join in the future, bringing the total number of countries participating in the system to 24.
Spain, Poland and Croatia, as well as the United Kingdom, will not participate in the new system as things stand at present.
The application for Unitary Patent protection in the participating member states must be filed within one month of the publication of the notice of grant of the relevant European patent.
The territorial scope of a Unitary Patent remains unchanged throughout its term, even if additional member states ratify the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court after registration of the relevant patent. Thus, the territorial scope of Unitary Patents is not extended to other member states that ratify the Agreement after the registration of the relevant patent.
Source:
www.epo.org