Wednesday, December 11, 2013 Level of Renewal fees not expected soon

One of the open question regarding the unitary patent is the level of the fees. Of immediate concern is the level of the renewal fee. After a unitary patent has been granted, one does not pay individual renewals for all participating states, but instead one central renewal fee, to be paid to EPO.

The level of the renewal fee will determine where the break-even point will be, cost-wise, between classic validation and a unitary patent.

Monday, September 23, 2013 Austria ratifies Agreement on a Unified Patent Court

On 07.08.2013 Austria ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court. Although 25 EU countries had already signed the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, Austria is now the first country to already ratify the agreement.

For the unitary patent to enter into force, 13 countries need to ratify, including Germany, France and the United Kingdom. 12 more countries to go!

Thursday, June 13, 2013 More translations needed for a unitary patent?

In my last post I noted that the unitary patent requires fewer translations than regular European validations. During the transitory period, this may not be true.

Consider the following example. You have a granted European patent application with an English text.  The patent has 20 pages of specification and 2 more pages of claims. You only need patent protection in France, German, and the United Kingdom.  You are still in the transitory period.

Without a unitary patent, you do not require any further translation than already imposed by the EPO. This is a result of the London Agreement. This means that when your application gets to grant you need to translate the claims into two official languages. In total you need 2+2=4 pages of translation.

If you decide to obtain protection in these three countries through a unitary patent you need to provide a full translation of the patent as well.  You still need to translate 4 pages for the claims, but in addition 22 pages for a full translation in another EU language are needed. In total you need 22+2+2=26 of translation.

Going through the unitary patent route instead of the conventional route gives a more than 6 fold increase in translation requirements.


Even if you extend the number of countries in which you wish protection with say, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden, the regular system still requires fewer translations. To validate in these countries, I need only translate the claims, so the score becomes, 26 pages for unitary versus 10 pages for conventional European patent.

To be fair, there are many European countries that would require a full translation in this example under the old system but will not for in the unitary system, say Portugal, Belgium, or Austria. So adding these countries to the list would swing the advantage to the unitary patent.

Validation only in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the Netherlands are not uncommon. For such a limited list of countries the short term validation costs increase significantly. This may impact the decision to go for unitary effect or not. 

Note, that this doesn't take into account other cost factors, in particular renewal fees. Moreover, the additional translation imposed by the transitory period has no legal effect, so some may be tempted to skimp on its quality.

Monday, June 10, 2013 Overview of translation requirements for the unitary patent

One of the advantages of the unitary patent is a reduction in translation requirements. Below we will give an overview of the translations you may encounter when applying for a unitary patent.

Monday, June 03, 2013 Spain's arguments against unitary patent published

Last Friday the pleas were published that Spain raised in the annulment actions C-146/13 and C-147/13 aimed at the EU regulations for the Unitary Patent.

Wednesday, May 08, 2013 Referendum on Unified Patent Court in Ireland

According to the EUobserver, junior minister Sean Sherlock has confirmed that Ireland will have to hold a referendum before ratifying the agreement on a Unified Patent Court. TheJournal notes that Ireland's Supreme Court requires a referendum for any transfer of judicial powers to an international body.

The Unified Patent Court will entail such a transfer. Apart from unitary patents, the unified patent court will also be competent for 'regular' European Patents, i.e., without unitary effect. Once a European Patent has been granted it has the same effect as a national patent in the contracting states, including Ireland.

Thursday, May 02, 2013 Can Spain or Italy change their mind, and join the Unitary patent?

At the moment, unitary patents will not be valid for Spain and Italy. Could these countries still change their minds?