Online Course: Unitary Patent Administration

With the entry into force of the new Unified Patent Package, it will be possible to obtain a European granted patent with unitary effect (Unitary Patent). The procedure for obtaining this Unitary Patent will start after a European patent application is granted, but will not substitute the possibility of following the classical route of validations. The Unified Patent Package will also give birth to the Unified Patent Court, which will
be responsible for infringement and nullity actions concerning both Unitary Patents and classical European patents. Because of this package, patent prosecution will become more complex in the future. IP support staff will be required to master this new system throughout, as if it were a new jurisdiction, with new deadlines, requirements and fees. Moreover, the traditional distinction in practice between patent prosecution and
litigation will be challenged. Both Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court are part of the same package, and this will provoke the
arrival of mixed patent procedures after grant in which traditional patent prosecution will not be seen as stand-alone anymore, but sometimes integrated in a system in which hybrid formalities need to be resolved.

Themen

Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court
- What are they?
- Jurisdiction
- Formalities before the EPO: The request for an European patent with unitary effect
- Formalities before the UPC: Planned course of proceedings
- Opting out the Unified Patent Court
- Translation Arrangements
- Fees, costs of maintenance, representation before EPO/UPC
- Safe handling of invention protection in in-house IP departments and law firms