Romania joins the Unitary Patent

Romania has become the 18th Member State to ratify the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA)

Romania joins the Unitary Patent

On 31 May 2024, Romania deposited its instrument of ratification and will accede to the UPCA on 1 September 2024.

According to Article 89(2) UPCA, the Agreement will enter into force in Romania on 01 September, 2024.

Ratification of the agreement has the following effects:

• At the end of the European patent, at the grant stage, protection in Romania can be continued either as:
• a Romanian national patent – (the existing system); or
• a Unitary Patent; and
• Romanian national patents can have infringement and validity determined by the Unified Patent Court;

Unitary Patents continue to be determined for infringement and validity at the Unified Patent Court.  

Unitary patent

​​Romania will join the Unitary Patent system with effect from 1 September 2024. All European patents taking up unitary effect from 1 September will automatically cover Romania.

The number of EU Member States participating in the Unitary Patent system will therefore increase to 18, covering an additional market of some 19 million people. 

Existing Unitary patents covering the present 17 states will not be retrospectively extended to include Romania.

In the first year since the Unitary Patent became a reality on 1 June 2023, the EPO received 28,450 requests for unitary effect and registered over 27,600 Unitary Patents. Since the beginning of the year, this means that almost one in four European patents granted has been converted into a Unitary Patent.   

The Unitary Patent system provides lower cost per state and uniform protection compared to the alternative of individual European national phase patents. Payment of annual renewal fees, registration of subsequent transactions such as assignments or the granting of licences can be registered centrally at the European Patent Office.  This means that patent owners no longer have to deal with many different national procedures in parallel. All these benefits make the Unitary Patent a cost effective option particularly for Small and Medium Size Enterprises.  

For European patents currently about to grant, the EPO will accept requests for a delay of the registration of unitary effect, so that the following unitary patents can include Romania.  

Unified Patent Court

The Unified Patent Court has jurisdiction to hear matters of infringement and validity of European patents issued by the European Patent Organisation, an intra governmental organisation which is not part of the European Union and Unitary Patents.

The Court has locations in:

Court of Appeal - Luxembourg

Central divisions of the Court of First Instance - Paris, France and Munich, Germany

Local Divisions of the Court of First Instance – Vienna, Austria; Brussels, Belgium; Copenhagen, Denmark; Helsinki, Finland; Paris, France; Düsseldorf, Germany; Hamburg, Germany; Mannheim, Germany; Munich, Germany, Milan, Italy, The Hague, the Netherlands; Lisbon, Portugal; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Stockholm, Sweden.

Seat of the Nordic Baltic Regional Division - Stockholm, Sweden

Places of hearing of the Regional Division – Riga, Latvia; Tallin, Estonia; Vilnius, Latvia

The Unified Patent Court spans across 19 cities in 17 states.

The official fee costs for the Unified Patent Court are as follows:

1. fixed fees (Court of first instance)

2. Value-based fees (Court of first instance and Court of Appeal)

The overall court fee costs for most actions is likely to be in the range €11,000 - €13,500, plus professional fees for the professional representative to prepare and prosecute the case.

If you have received a letter before action or a claim form referring to a Unitary Patent, or a European Patent, and would like to discuss it, or if you wish to enforce your European patent or Unitary Patent, for more information contact one of our European Patent Litigators:

• Robert Franks - Professional Representative before the Unified Patent Court, Professional Representative before the European Patent Organisation - robert.franks@franksco.com
• Abigail Welford - Professional Representative before the Unified Patent Court, Professional Representative before the European Patent Organisation – Abigail.welford@franksco.com
• Abdulmalik Lawal - Professional Representative before the Unified Patent Court, Professional Representative before the European Patent Organisation – Abdulmalik.lawal@franksco.com
• Jonathan Banford - Professional Representative before the Unified Patent Court, Professional Representative before the European Patent Organisation – jon.banford@franksco.com