The UPC and the Unitary Patent: what does this mean for your company?

Patent law is no longer governed solely by national rules and the EPC, but also by provisions of European and international law. 

Because of the intertwining of different legal systems and additional options for action, patenting practice has become more complex. Patent application strategies should be orientated more precisely than in the past to the later enforcement and defence of the industrial property rights and ought to take into account, inter alia, the following aspects:

• A Unitary Patent offers uniform protection in all e participating member states.
• This also means that a Unitary Patent can be declared invalid at one stroke, with effect for all member states.
• It is possible to obtain enforceable injunctions enjoining infringers to cease and desist from infringing a Unitary Patent with effect for all the member states in only one single court procedure.
• Savings in the costs of the patent grant have to be balanced against the costs of enforcing patents in the UPC procedure. 
• As an alternative, the Global Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), in which the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) also participates, offers the possibility of obtaining national patents in a number of states quickly and inexpensively.
• Proprietors of European Patents which have already been granted should consider whether they wish to make an opt-out declaration in order to remove their patent from the jurisdiction of the UPC.