B9 11958. Persbericht Raad van de Europese Unie + factsheet Unitair Octrooi.
“The Council today (maandag 17 december) adopted two regulations with a view to implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection and its translation arrangement. The package allowing for the creation of a unitary system of patent protection consists of the two regulations today adopted and an international agreement creating a Unified Patent Court. All the necessary preparatory work (designation of committees, budget, appointment of judges and president, recruitment of staff, facilities, etc.) shall be carried out in a timely manner so as to enable the first registration of a European patent title with unitary effect in spring 2014.
The regulation creating unitary patent protection will entrust the European Patent Office (EPO) with the task of granting unitary patent titles valid in the 25 member states participating in the enhanced cooperation. The participating member states will also delegate a number of administrative tasks relating to European patents with unitary effect to the EPO, such as registrations, transfers, publications, reimbursement of translation costs and the collection and distribution of renewal fees.
The regulation setting out the translation arrangements for European patents benefitting from unitary effect is based on the linguistic regime of the EPO, where the official languages are English, French and German. Those arrangements aim to achieve a balance between the interests of economic operators and the public interest, in terms of the cost of proceedings and the availability of technical information. In order to facilitate access to unitary patents, in particular for SMEs, applicants will be able to file their patent applications in any official language of the Union.
The third element of the package is the Unified Patent Court agreement (UPC), which will be an international agreement among the member states concluded outside the EU institutional framework.
Lees het persbericht hier en de factsheet hier.
