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PATENTS IN EUROPE


A TALE OF TWO PATENTS


The Unitary Patent is designed to help promote innovation as well as ensure the full and effective protection of inventors’ rights across Europe, as Ermioni Pavlidou reports.


throughout the member states. Being an inventor or businessman targeting the EU, one would expect it to be easy to file a single application and receive uniform protection without any further costs. But is this the case?


B


In December 2012, reforms were agreed by the European parliament and the European Council providing for a Unified Patent Court (UPC) and establishing a legal right to a patent with a unitary effect.


Following these reforms, in February 2013, an agreement was signed in Brussels by the EU member states establishing the single UPC and the Unitary Patent.


Tis new patent provides for a single EU right and thus allows for uniform protection throughout the EU members. Te new Unitary Patent system will be initiated at the earliest during 2015 and


eing a member of the EU, one would expect it to be easy and fast to register a patent and be given uniform protection


will serve as a complement (an extra option) to the existing European patent system.


Procedure


Application and examination procedures for Unitary Patents will be the same as for European patents. Te differences will come aſter the granting of the patent.


Specifically, once the reforms come into effect, an applicant will have three options when applying to the European Patent Office (EPO):


a) For a Unitary Patent; b) For a traditional European patent; or


c) For the two combined. Tis third option will allow an applicant to have a single EU right for the countries that have agreed and are part of the Unitary Patent system and a European patent for any other country that can be designated. In all, 38 countries can be designated for a European patent.


104 World Intellectual Property Review Annual 2014


If the applicant wishes to obtain a Unitary Patent, a request for one must be sent to the EPO within a month of the date of the publication of the grant in the European patent bulletin.


As the European patent is a collection of national rights, renewals, administration and so on has to be dealt with on a country-by-country basis.


By contrast, the Unitary Patent provides for a single EU right and thus the EPO will also be responsible for collecting, administering and remitting renewal fees for Unitary Patents. Te EPO will also include legal status information such as licences, transfers, limitations, and revocations.


Costs


If one compares the amount needed to protect an invention in the US with the amount needed to protect one’s rights via a European patent, according to the European Commission it is nearly 15 times less.


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