Obtaining the Unitary Effect
Contrary to what its name might suggest, the unitary patent is not « filed »: there is no « unitary patent application » form to be sent to an office. The unitary patent is not a new title, but a European patent granted by the EPO to which a unitary effect is attached a posteriori.
A registration, not a new grant
The entire substantive procedure—filing, search, examination, grant—falls under the European Patent Convention and is not repeated here. The unitary effect is only added after the grant, through a simple registration carried out by the EPO (Article 3 of Regulation 1257/2012). The same European patent can therefore, depending on the proprietor’s choice, become unitary or remain a classic « bundle » of national patents.
Three paths after grant
Once the mention of the grant is published, the proprietor has three options:
- request the unitary effect (a single title for the covered states);
- proceed with classic national validations, country by country;
- combine: unitary effect for the core territory, national validations for the rest (United Kingdom, Switzerland, Spain, etc.).
This choice is discussed in detail on the page Articulation with the classic European patent.
A one-month countdown
Everything is decided within the month following the publication of the mention of the grant in the European Patent Bulletin (Rule 6 of the Rules relating to Unitary Patent Protection (UPR)). One month, non-extendable, to finalize the territorial coverage of a title that may have taken ten years to obtain: needless to say, the decision is prepared well in advance.
The steps
- The request for unitary effect — who files it, under what conditions, and within what timeframe. The language regime and the translation—the only translation still required (on a transitional basis) and the reimbursement of costs. The registration of the unitary effect—the EPO’s examination and entry in the Register.
- Refusal of the unitary effect and appeals — what to do when things go wrong.