The Unitary Patent (UP) officially launched on 1 June 2023. It provides a single, binding intellectual property right that can be enforced across participating EU member states through the closely-related Unified Patent Court (UPC).
Because the UP avoids the need to validate a patent separately in multiple countries, it offers a new, streamlined way to secure protection for your innovations across Europe.
However, deciding to pursue protection through the UP is a balancing act: it comes with the risk of central revocation, not every EU country participates, and it lacks country-by-country flexibility.
To help you make a commercially-driven decision, our European IP specialists have compiled some insights for patentees weighing up their filing strategy.
