The European
unitary patent regime was approved after much discussion on 11th
December 2012. It is applicable in 25 countries and a new single court will be
established for the purpose. There will be no need to translate the patents
into other languages as there was earlier. Applications are to be in English,
German or French, or translated into one of them.
The Agreement on
the Unified Patent Court was signed on 19th February, 2013. In order
for the said agreement to be in force, it will have to be ratified by at least
13 countries. Germany, France and UK must ratify it. Till date only Austria (6th
August 2013) and France (14th March 2014) have ratified. The
earliest expected timeframe for completion is 2015.
Though the
system will make the whole process of filing patents in EU easier and more
organized, it also poses certain threats. Losing protection in one member state
would amount to losing it in all. However the convenience and cost reduction in
the patent application system are big enough attractions, specially in those
cases where the applicant is desirous of getting patent protection in more than
one country.
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