Tom Hamer provides the answers to any questions clients might have on the new unitary patent, the Unified Patent Court, and the possible impact on patent proprietors across Europe
The unitary patent will be a brand-new type of patent, which will have 'unitary effect' throughout the participating European states.
How does it differ from a normal
European patent?
The 'standard' European patent application procedure is essentially split into two stages: grant and validation. During the validation stage, the European patent is split into a bundle of essentially independent patents, one for each of the European states elected by the applicant.
Renewal fees are then due to the patent office
in each elected state in order to keep the patent
in force in that co...
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