Coverage of Unitary patent improves

Romania has ratified Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA), and joins the unitary patent system as the 18th EU member state on September 1, 2024. For obtaining a Unitary Patent (UP), a request to register the granted EP patent with unitary effect shall be made before the EPO within one month from grant date of the EP patent.

Unitary Patent covers only the territories of participating member states in which the UPCA has taken effect at the date of registration of the unitary effect by the EPO. If the applicant wishes it’s newly granted EP patent to be registered with unitary effect covering also Romania, a request for delaying registration of unitary effect can be filed.

Current EU Member States covered by a Unitary Patent are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Sweden.

More information is available in the EPO notice: https://www.epo.org/en/legal/official-journal/2024/06.html