03 Feb (Another) kick-off for the Unitary Patent
The European Unitary Patent, which will allow to have a common protection for all Member States, has taken a step forward towards its implementation.
After the ratification of Austria, on January 19, 2022, the Protocol to the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court on provisional application (UPCA) entered into force.
This is the kick-off of the necessary steps for implementing this Court: choosing judges, hiring legal and paralegal staff, implementing infrastructures, etc. This stage is expected to take eight months.
In the meantime, it is foreseen that Germany ratifies the UPCA and, consequently, that the Unitary Patent comes into force about four months after such ratification. The most optimistic dates are the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023.
The owners of the patents which are granted after the entry into force of the Unitary Patent shall have the option of a unitary patent, that is, a common protection and maintenance for all the Member States of this system, instead of the current validation proceedings, country by country. However, some Member States of the European Patent Convention, among them Spain, have decided not to take part in the Unitary Patent. Therefore, validations shall still be necessary for these countries.
The European Patent Office has announced that transitional arrangements will be applied in order that the patents in the final stage of the proceedings, within the period comprised between the ratification of Germany and the entry into force of the system, may also have the possibility of this unitary effect.
Author: Carles Molina
Photo by Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash