Wednesday, May 07, 2014 EPO board issues a statement on the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court.

The Economic and Scientific Advisory Board (ESAB) of the EPO has issued a statement on the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court.

The statement is generally positive, and points out a number of advantages of the new system. According to the Board:

Benefits of the unitary patent include:

• Administrative simplification of patenting in Europe, 
• Potential for saving costs, including validation, translation, and post-grant administration costs, 
• Geographic extension of patent protection. 

 
 Benefits of the unified patent court include:

• Reduction in the high cost of enforcement for firms that validate in many or all member states
• Developing harmonized and consistent jurisprudence throughout the territory of the member states

Concerns include

• Unitary patent renewal fees and the costs related to litigation before the Unified Patent Court
• Increased complexity due to the additional tier added to the patent system
• Non-Practising Entities may become more active in Europe

The findings of the Board are based on a workshop they organized in December 2013, and a study they commissioned to Europe Economics.