Current Affairs
An update on the unitary patent system
As of 1 June 2023, the European Patent Office (EPO) offers the possibility to register a granted European patent as a unitary patent. This unitary patent has effect in 18 European Union (EU) member states, representing 80% of the GDP of the EU. Before its start, it was uncertain if patentees would readily embrace the unitary patent system, afraid of losing their patent in a single court action. Let’s look at some statistics on unitary patents over the last 1.5 years and get a first insight into the acceptance rate of the unitary patent system by their users.
How many unitary patents were registered?
In absolute numbers, approximately 40,000 requests for unitary effect have been received by the EPO since the unitary patent system came into force (update: October 2024). This converts to a total of 20.9% of granted patents being registered as unitary patent. Notably however, the fraction of unitary patents seems to be on the rise. Where in 2023 only for 17.5% of the granted patents a request for unitary effect was made, this number raised to 25.1% in 2024 already.
Who makes use of the unitary patent system?
When looking at the geographical location of proprietors, requests for unitary effects are frequently filed by proprietors located in the EU (30.7% - Update October 2024) (figure 1). In terms of entity size of proprietors, the largest fraction of unitary patents is owned by large enterprises (56.9%), whilst SME and individual inventors account for 23.5% of the total unitary patents filed. Universities and public research organizations make up for the rest, owning about 7.6% of the total unitary patent. The acceptance rate seems higher under SMEs than under large enterprises. SMEs register a larger fraction of their total patents as unitary patent (figure 2).
Acceptance rate across technological fields (source: EPO)
Table 1 shows the fraction of granted European patents that were registered as unitary patent per technological field. From its data, it can be derived that unitary patents are relatively popular in the fields “Food chemistry” and "Civil engineering". In these fields, respectively circa 29% and 27% of all granted patents are unitary patents. Conversely, in the field of electrical engineering (marked with an asterisk) the percentage was well below average. In this field, a relatively large share of patents is owned by tech giants which seem to be on the cautious side when it comes to obtaining unitary patents.
Overall
Approximately one fifth of total granted patents were validated as unitary patent since the system entered into force in June 2023, although the numbers differ substantially per technological field. Overall, this is quite a promising start. Moreover, given that the fraction of European granted patents that are registered as unitary patents is higher in 2024 than in 2023, the system is becoming more popular over time. While the unitary patent system has not been widely embraced yet, especially by large enterprises, the system has not been rejected by them either.
Our patent attorneys can advise you in dept and on a case-by-case basis on the advantages and disadvantages of the unitary patent system.
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Wat gaat het nieuwe octrooisysteem (UPC) voor mij betekenen?
Als het UPC en unitair octrooi worden ingevoerd, zal ik:
voor mijn bestaande en nieuwe EU octrooien waarschijnlijk kiezen voor UPC
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voorlopig nog het huidige systeem volgen en eerst de UPC-ontwikkelingen afwachten
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niet weten wat het beste is om te doen
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