Romania becomes the 18th State to join the Unitary patent and the Unified Patent Court (UPC)!
European patents with unitary effect registered from September 1 will extend to Romania, in addition to the following countries: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta , Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden.
This move by Romania coincides with the 1st anniversary of the European patent with unitary effect (anniversary video – EPO) and the UPC which came into existence on June 1, 2023.According to EPO sources, since the start of the year, almost one in 4 European patents is converted into a European patent with unitary effect (EPO site).
The UPC is the new supranational jurisdiction established in the European Union which allows, in particular, holders of European patents to act in matters of counterfeiting in a centralized manner for all the States having ratified the Agreement establishing the UPC, without having to bring actions before national courts in different countries.
From September 1, the unitary effect of a European patent will extend to Romania, but holders of European patents will still have the possibility of carrying out national validation in Romania. When protection in Romania is sought, by requesting unitary effect, there will be no need to provide the translation of the patent into Romanian unlike validation in Romania, which will significantly reduce costs.
hile waiting for September 1, and in order to allow users to benefit from the territorial scope of the unitary patent covering Romania, the European Patent Office is now accepting requests for postponement of the registration of the unitary effect. For this, from a practical point of view, it is necessary to expressly request the postponement with the request for unitary effect.
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