Opt out your existing patents from the jurisdiction of the Unified Patent Court. That is the advice European patent attorney Martin Luten repeatedly gave to the audience of a webinar last month of his firm Arnold & Siedsma.
In the webinar, Luten discussed the basics of the Unitary Patent (UP) and the Unified Patent Court (UPC), which will – as announced earlier this week – likely start functioning as from 1 June next year. Both constitute major changes in the European landscape and are the result of over 20 years of attempts to create a united European patent system.
Under the current patent system, which (apart from the national patent route) is based on the European Patent Convention and comprises 39 member states, the European Patent Office decides about European patent applications, but after grant this classic European patent turns into a bundle of national patents. It has to be validated in every separate country, which may cost a lot of money as translations of the patent specification or at least the claims of the patent have to be provided. Apart from that, yearly renewal fees have to be paid in every country where the patent is validated, which incurs substantive costs. Read more