Comparison of European Patent and European Single Patent

Single patent protection in Europe(Unitary Patent)System(Hereinafter referred to as single patent)has been2023Year6Month1The application and examination process extends the European patent model in a single patent, with the only difference being the process of licensing and entry into force after authorization. A single patent and a traditional European patent will exist at the same time. At present, the applicant obtains a European patent (European Patent) After authorization, you can choose(1)by applying for entry into a designated Member State, a patent may be obtained in that designated Member State; or(2)By applying for a single patent, you can apply for a single patent in the European Single Patent Court Agreement.(Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, hereinafter referred toUPCA)All member states have patent rights.

Under the terms of the European Patent Convention, a traditional European patent, after being granted, must be3The procedure of submitting translated patent documents to each designated country and paying the relevant fees shall be completed within one month. In order to reduce the huge translation costs and workload, the single patent system is designed as the following model: "after the European patent application has been granted,1Within months, the patent applicant only needs to use the European Patent Office (EPO) the language used in the review procedure, in writing toEPOA request for a single patent protection is made, accompanied by a translation of the patent specification (including the claims). 」

Specific as follows: if inEPOIf the language used in the review procedure is French or German, the translation document must be English; if the language used is English, the translation document must be in any other official language of the European Union.

Features of a single patent

According to the European Union No.1257/2012The characteristics included in the single patent and the corresponding protective effects are:

1. in allUPCAThe patent right in the territory of the member states shall take effect at the same time; when it is revoked, it shall be revoked at the same time; when it is transferred, the patent protection of all member states shall be transferred together.
2. Patent authorization, the patentee can be limited to certain specific territories.
3. When an infringement lawsuit is filed and a judgment is obtained under the single patent system, the judgment will have the legal effect across the territory of all member states, and the court's injunction or temporary injunction on a single patent will also span the territory of all member states.
4. Reduced translation demand, as described in EU No.1260/2012provisions of the Rules.
5. The cost of obtaining patent rights is reduced (including annual fees for application, maintenance, translation, etc.).

single patentUPwith the European patentEPCost expense variance trial

A European patent in4The total costs incurred by each country for simultaneous application and maintenance are as follows:

Source:https://www.epo.org/applying/european/unitary/unitary-patent/cost.html .

Therefore, if you choose to enter4more than oneUPCAmember states, assuming that the patent is to be maintained20years, applying for a single patent can save at least3680Euro (compared to European patentsEPIndividual Application Maintenance4countries). But it must be noted that if you want to enter the nonUPCAMember States, you need to choose a general European patent.

Agreement on the Single European Patent Court(Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, shortUPCA)Member States

European PatentEPwith a single patentUPComparison table