UPC reason ten: Simplicity
2 February 2022
The unitary patent (UP) system offers much greater simplicity for users.
Instead of having to validate and renew a granted European patent on a country-by-country basis, innovators would be able to achieve the same protection with a single Unitary Patent maintained by a single renewal fee. That means fewer deadlines to remember and fewer reminder emails from your renewals service, less administration, and lower bills.
Post grant, litigation relating to a Unitary Patent is handled by the Unified Patent Court, a new court for patent matters in Europe. This means that claimants and defendants need not exercise or defend their intellectual property in multiple, separate jurisdictions but rather use a single procedure in a common court and be granted a single decision that takes effect in all territories covered by the Unitary Patent. This provides a centralised, efficient and cost-effective system for managing post-grant proceedings, such as claims for infringement.
In this series, we give our top 10 reasons to welcome the Unitary Patent system and explore why the system is a great thing for innovative businesses.
