The Unitary Patent is very close, meaning that the Unified Patent Court (TUP) will be the competent court (jurisdiction shared with the national courts) in the countries that participate in the system to decide centrally on patent matters infringement and validity of European patents.
Aware of the patent changes, Ponti & Partners has been preparing to offer the best service to its clients. Not only in processing or managing their files but also in providing them with all the necessary information. For this reason, it has organized a webinar for clients next Monday, November 28, at 10:00.
One of the priority objectives will be to help clients in making decisions regarding the Opt-Out request.
The new scenario of the Unitary Patent
The arrival of this new European patent system will allow the holder to request, after the grant and through a single validation procedure, the unitary effect of his patent in the countries of the European Union that participate in the system. Thus, the patent in these countries will have a unitary nature with uniform protection and applied equally in all those countries. However, it is remarkable to note that this new system will coexist with the current system.
With the beginning of the Unitary Patent, the Unified Patent Court will have exclusive jurisdiction, with which it will decide centrally on the validity and infringements of the patent. In fact, on the date of entry into force of the new system, existing European applications and patents will fall under the jurisdiction shared between the Unified Court and the national courts. Unless the owner requests the Opt-Out mechanism that we have previously mentioned.
The entry into the scene of the Unitary Patent provides an additional option to obtain protection in Europe. In addition, it compels the holders of applications and patents to make decisions regarding whether or not to request the unitary effect after receiving the grant and whether or not to exclude from the competition of the Unified Court the classical European applications and patents validated without unitary effect.
In short, we are talking about a complex issue which requires good training to have all the necessary tools to decide properly. And that is what Ponti & Partners is looking for with the webinar for its clients. In this way, they can have all the information possible to help and facilitate their decision-making.
For more information on the Unitary Patent, we refer you to the article by Maria Mercè Vidal published on the Ponti & Partners news blog.