European Patent with unitary effect enters into force

European patents are powerful assets that enable the more innovative companies to attract investment, have lucrative licensing agreements, protect their market share, and expand their business. However, validating, maintaining, and protecting European patents can be a complex and expensive process.

 The traditional country to country validation system, with the need to translate the patent into several different languages, with varying costs and procedures as well as the different legal systems means that protecting patents in Europe is fragmented, overly costly, complex and legally uncertain, which contributes to making it difficult for companies to access the entire European market, creating barrier and steering some countries off the patents’ route.

 The new Unitary Patent system intends to shift this paradigm, making the process to grant patents simpler, less bureaucratic, and economical. It is thereby a fully centralised system that is capable of ensuring a standardised protection of inventions in the European Union through a single request without the need for national validation, without multiple translations and without national renewal fees. 

This system complements the current European level centralised patent issuing system. Accordingly, one can choose between the national validation of a European patent in one or more EU Member States or the Unitary Patent protection. It is also possible to combine the new system with the current one and request a Unitary Patent at the same time as having the traditional European patent validation in other states that are not in the new system or haven’t yet joined the agreement on the Unified Patent Court.

 The new system is particularly relevant for Portugal given that according to the European Patent Office (EPO), in the Patent Index 2021, Portugal is the country "with the strongest growth in Europe (among the countries with more than 200 patent requests)", recording a rise of 13.9% in requests compared to 2020.

 This is a growth that in 2021 accounts for five times the EU27 average, which stands at 2.7%. Portuguese higher educaiton institutions, research centres and companies filed 286 patent requests with the EPO the largest number of records to date.

 Portugal will have a local division of the Unified Patent Court whose office will be in the same building as the Intellectual Property Court. 

 The Unified Patent Court is a legal body common to all Member States party to it, with exclusive powers over unitary effect European patents and European patents issued under the terms of the European Patent Convention.

 This split will enable simplifying procedures, fostering proximity with users, and cutting litigation costs (legal costs and lawyer fees), as well as using Portuguese as a current language in the legal process. When requested, English can be used (unless expressed otherwise by the parties or by decision from the division).

Innovating companies can use the new Unitary Patent System to protect their inventions in the EU Member States that have ratified it - Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Sweden – and we expect that the others will also take part.

 To better understand the novelties this Unitary Patent brings, the Portuguese Industrial Property Institute (INPI) set up a website where you can find a video on the new system, guides, flyers, a FAQ area, as well as information on the Unified Patent Court.

 Through thIis website you can also access the European Patent Office (EPO) and the e-learning centre with information on the Unitary Patent Service.