A European patent with unitary effect system is in force as of 1 June 2023.
The European patent with unitary effect is a patent granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) and for which unitary effect has been registered, it is valid in 17 countries of the European Union, namely Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden.
Poland is not among these countries, so the provisions of the Act on the Filing of European Patent Applications and the Effects of European Patents in the Republic of Poland will continue to apply, and thus European patents will require validation.
Disputes concerning European patents with unitary effect are settled by the Unified Patent Court (UPC).
A translation of the patent description and claims into any language of the European Union should be filed with the EPO along with the Request for unitary effect of a European patent (as well as with an early Request for unitary effect of a European patent). Although Poland is not a part of the European patent with unitary effect system, the patents may also be translated into Polish when the language of proceedings before the EPO is English. When the language of proceedings before the EPO is German or French, a translation of the description and claims into English must be made. It should be emphasised that the specifications cannot be machine-translated.
Our firm offers following services related to European patent with unitary effect:
- filing patent applications with the European Patent Office and representing clients during the prosecution to obtain a European patent with unitary effect
- filing of the Requests for unitary effect of a European patent
- payment of the fees for the successive years of protection of European patents with unitary effect and monitoring the annuities effected before the European Patent Office
- recordals in the Register of the European Patent Office including the opt-out requests for granted European patents
- providing technical analysis and opinions in contentious cases related to European patents with unitary effect
- translations of granted European patents into Polish for a Request for unitary effect of a European patent