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UNITARY PATENT


UNITARY PATENT: TOO EARLY TO JUDGE


The question is not whether German attorneys like it. The question is, rather, what they can expect. Anton Pfau and Ulrich Blumenröder explain.


Everybody is searching for clarity about the Unitary Patent, but what we read today may be outdated in a week. It transpires, however, that for those concerned with patent prosecution, there will be hardly any change. Applications will be handled as was any European Patent application in the past. T e applicant needs to make its fi rst decision on the Unitary Patent upon grant of the European Patent. T en the applicant has to decide whether to have the European Patent validated as a Unitary Patent or only for those countries which would otherwise be covered by a Unitary Patent.


T e decision is easy to make if validation is needed in all European Patent Convention member states or, at least, all states participating in the Unitary Patent. But this is only the case for a small number of patents, such as those for pharmaceuticals. More than 70 percent of European Patents are validated in only four countries. If protection in these countries suffi ces, there are just two issues to be considered:


• Translation costs: In comparing the two alternatives, one must not forget the London Protocol, which means costs are no diff erent one way or the other.


34 World Intellectual Property Review January/February 2012


• Annuities: T e same applies for annuities, if looking at just the early years of protection. T e real issue is that a European Patent with unitary eff ect will no longer permit holders to allow protection to lapse in certain countries and thereby reduce the annuities. T e level of annuities will, therefore, be decisive for the success of the European Patent with unitary eff ect.


However, it shouldn’t matter that a European Patent with unitary eff ect can be invalidated in a nullity action before the Unifi ed Patent Court. T e same is true for any European Patent that is validated in single states only.


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