Situations Where The Permanent Long Term Provisions Will Not Apply (Including Transitional Provisions And Opt-Out)

TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS

Background

The permanent (i.e. non-transitional) provisions apply to unitary European patents, SPCs, European patents which have not lapsed at the date the Unified Patent Court Agreement comes into force or was granted after that date and European patent applications pending or filed after the Agreement comes into force.

However under Regulation EU no 1257/2012 relating to the unitary patent, a European patent for which unitary effect is registered in the Register for unitary patent protection shall have unitary effect only in those participating Member States in which the Unified Patent Court (which is a court common to the Contracting Member States (see footnote 1)) has exclusive jurisdiction at the date of registration.