Unitary patent for 17 European countries
Yes it's coming on June 1, 2023 - the long-awaited unitary patent!
From June 1, 2023, the unitary patent will be valid for 17 European countries, including Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands. Further countries will follow after the conclusion of the negotiations and the unitary patent will be valid in a total of 25 countries in the future.
The solution of the unitary patent in Continux
In order to obtain a unitary patent, an EP application must first be filed with the European Patent Office until it reaches the "grant intended" status. Once this status is reached, the so-called request for unitary effect can be filed in Continux. This is a request in the official language of the respective country, which ensures that the patent is effective in all participating countries. The request must be filed within one month from the date of "grant intended". The European Patent Office has put together an informative video here. If you want to watch the video directly on Youitube, just click on this link.
Continux will be extended to include the unitary patent function, all necessary information for the unitary effect application will be available. Once the application is filed and the required conditions are met, the unitary patent will automatically become valid in all participating countries.
The renewal fees are established to the European Patent Office and no longer to the validations of the individual countries
It is important to note that the renewal fees for the unitary patent must be paid to the European Patent Office and no longer in the validations of the individual countries.
What happens in Continux with the workflow "Validation from a granted European patent"?
The Unitary Patent workflow will be expanded and new fields will be added to ensure that all required steps are covered.
The benefit of the unitary patent
The unitary patent offers an effective way of obtaining patent protection in several countries in Europe and can be of particular benefit to companies operating internationally.
Support from our staff for (software) questions regarding the unitary patent
If you have further questions about the integration of the unit patent in Continux, we recommend that you contact your Continux consultant.
Continux IP Management Software and the Unit Patent
As an IP management software provider, we will ensure that our customers can easily map the unitary patent in Continux. We will ensure that all relevant fields and workflows are set up correctly and that our customers do not miss any important deadlines. Thanks to our support, you can be sure that you will be able to exploit the full potential of the unitary patent and benefit from the numerous advantages offered by this new form of patent protection.
UPDATE - UPDATE - UPDATE - UPDATE - UPDATE - UPDATE
UPDATE to this blog post dated May 24, 2023.
We are still shipping the unit patent version this week. For this particular case, we have mapped our release notes that you would normally find under the Support section of this homepage here in the following blog post for you as well as follows:
Thisrelease will be available from 1.6.2023 at the latest!
Dear customers!
As you know, soon the unitary patent EP will be valid for 17 European countries (number of countries as of May 24, 2023). Attention, the participating countries will be increased to 25 after the conclusion of the negotiations. Of course, this is not taken into account in Continux at this stage, but it will be observed and adjusted in due time in each case. Back to today's status. We have currently integrated the following countries in the unit patent:
- Austria,
- Belgium,
- Bulgaria,
- Denmark,
- Estonia,
- Finland,
- France,
- Germany,
- Italy,
- Latvia,
- Lithuania,
- Luxembourg,
- Malta,
- the Netherlands,
- Portugal,
- Slovenia,
- Sweden.
In Continux this is now implemented as follows.
In a European Patent:
If the status "grant intended" is set, an application for unitary patent can be filed.
Here we have an image of a published EP patent application:
Figure 1 EP application with status published
If one now enters the date of the 71(3) notice (issuance intended) Continux automatically adds the option to enter the date field REQUEST FOR SINGLE EFFECT:
Figure 2: The "Uniform effect request" field was automatically displayed after entering the date of the 71(3) notice
This means that we do not map the European Unitary Patent in Continux with its own new file type. Instead, for the creation of a unitary patent, only the field Request for unitary effect is entered. A CONDITION for the unitary patent, however, is that the EP application has been set to Grant intended.
If the field 71(3) Grant intended is set (date) a deadline will be generated, "Submit application for uniform effect". The deadline is calculated 1 month from date grant intended:
Figure 3: Here the deadline has now been automatically generated Submit Uniform Effect Request.
The date field for this was named
German"Application for uniform effect
English"Request for unitary effect
Figure 4: In English, the date field was called "Request for unitary effect
If the date "Request for uniform effect" is entered, "Children" must now be created in Continux via the workflow Extend family. A new entry has been added to the workflow for this purpose:
New workflow Unitary Patent/Unitary Patent
Plant of 17 children, countries are listed above
The additional entry is only available for selection if the date Application for uniform effect has been entered!
Figure 4: Workflow "Extend family" offers the usual selection in a European patent application to create further family members, but still without the unitary patent option if request for unitary effect has not yet been entered as date
Figure 5 After entering the date Request for unitary effect, the option to select the "Unitary patent" workflow now also appears in the Extend family workflow
If one now runs the Unified Patent workflow, Continux automatically creates the 17 countries listed above as individual family members. The user does not have to enter the 17 countries individually.
Figure 6 In the Unit patent workflow, you can enter a desired internal file number as usual or leave it blank to use the Continux file number assignment automatically. It is not necessary to enter the countries of the unit patent
If national phases (validations) have already been created in the European patent, these will be retained. We leave the correction to our customers if already created validations are to be transferred into a unitary patent. The workflow creates the current 17 countries of the unitary patent and simply creates a unitary patent for already existing validations with the extension of the internal file number _1.
Figure 7: The Extend Unit Patent Family workflow has created 17 country files of the unit patent. Already existing validations were kept. National countries of the Unitary Patent that have now been added have been created as validations with _1 at the end of the internal file number, if they already exist (Note, the file EP9922002_GB in the figure already existed before and was not created by the workflow, since GB is not part of the Unitary Patent (as of April 2023).
The workflow links the family members using the following record relations
In case of "child to EP father": EP origin
In the case of "EP father to child": unitary patent
Also:
If the field is filled with a date (the field request for uniform effect) then the following field is shown as a subsequent field:
German: Registration unitary patent protection (date)
English: Grant of unitary patent protection (date)
Figure 8: Showing the field "Registration of unitary patent protection" after the date "Request for unitary effect" has been entered
Figure 9: Showing the field "Grant of unitary patent protection" as soon as the date field "Request for unitary effect" has been filled (English version of the masks)
The renewal fees for a unitary patent are generated and paid to the EPO in the unitary patent file and no longer in the "validations". This means that no time limits may be generated in the 17 validations.
Figure 10: The annual fee periods are generated in the unit patent and not in the validations of the unit patent
ATTENTION please: With the Continux version delivered on June 1, 2023, the status of the unit patent acts will NOT be changed from GRANTED to REGISTERED, although the date field REGISTERED UNIT PATENT will receive a date. In order for the unit patent to receive the status registered, the date of registration must also be entered! No change is planned here at the moment.
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