The European Unitary Patent system is expected to (finally) take effect in late 2022 or early 2023. The system will include two elements: (1) a Unitary Patent Right (UPR), which is a single registration that will apply in multiple countries with no separate validation requirement; and (2) the Unified Patent Court (UPC), in which a patent holder may enforce a patent in multiple European countries in a single proceeding.
My partner Kari Barnes and I recently wrote an article describing what clients need to know to prepare for the European Unitary Patent system. For full details and our client alert on the topic, see the article that is available at this link.
IP Spotlight 