Unitary patent now covers Romania

As from 1 September 2024, Romania is part of the Unitary Patent (UP) system, being the 18^th country participating to the Unitary patent system.

All European patents taking unitary effect as from 1 September 2024 will automatically cover these 18 countries, including Romania.

All European patents having taken unitary effect up to 30 August 2024 will keep the territorial coverage of the initial 17 participating countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia,

Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden).

Unitary patent system: some figures

According to EPO statistics, since entry into force of Unitary patent system, about 20600 requests for unitary effects were filed and about 19200 corresponding Unitary patents were registered. As of 01/10/2024, a request for Unitary effect was filed for about 25% of European patents granted since 01/06/2023, reaching 35% where patent proprietors were from EU. Large enterprises make up about 60% of European patent proprietors requesting a Unitary effect.

Finally, where English is the procedural language, patent proprietors choose preferably as language for the mandatory translation to be filed with request for unitary effect Spanish, German, Italian and French.

Concerning the UPC patent court, according to latest official statistics from the Court as of end of May 2024, since the Court’s start of operations on 1 June 2023, the Court of First Instance has received a total number of 373 cases, among which 134 infringement actions and 165 counterclaims.

The Court of Appeal has for its part received 85 cases so far.

English (50%) and German (44%) make most of proceeding languages. It is interesting to note that around 70% of first instance cases are litigated in Germany.

G1/24: new referral to the Enlarged Board of Appeal for decision

Technical Board of Appeal 3.2.01 has by interlocutory decision T 439/22 referred the following questions to the Enlarged Board of Appeal (referral pending under G 1/24 - Heated aerosol):

1) Is Article 69(1), second sentence EPC and Article 1 of the Protocol on the Interpretation of Article 69 EPC to be applied on the interpretation of patent claims when assessing the patentability of an invention under Articles 52 to 57 EPC?

2) May the description and figures be consulted when interpreting the claims to assess patentability and, if so, may this be done generally or only if the person skilled in the art finds a claim to be unclear or ambiguous when read in isolation?

3) May a definition or similar information on a term used in the claims which is explicitly given in the description be disregarded when interpreting the claims to assess patentability and, if so, under what conditions?

Third parties are given the opportunity to file written statements (amicus curiae) relating to this referral by 15 November 2024.

EU Customs: mandatory use of electronic Applications for Action (eAFAs)

Application for action (AFA) is a EU customs tool that allows customs to detain goods suspected of infringing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) at the EU border.

IP rights holders can use the IP Enforcement Portal (IPEP) that was launched in 2021 to submit and manage AFAs. Paper AFAs were still accepted up to 2024.

In order to take account of the introduction of computerized systems in the European Union,

European Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2399 of September 12, 2024 amends Articles 1 and 2 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 1352/2013 of December 4, 2013 laying down the forms provided for in Regulation (EU) 608/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of June 12, 2013.

As of 3 October 2024, right holders and their representatives must therefore submit electronic applications for action (eAFAs) to customs through the IP Enforcement Portal (IPEP) or national portals in Germany, Italy and Spain

See press release here New PPH agreement between INPI and Singapore IP Office (IPOS) Singapore IP Office follows IMPI (Mexico), JPTO, USPTO, CIPO, INPI (Brazil), KIPO, CNIPA, OMPIC and SAIP with which INPI already has a PPH agreement

As from 01/09/2024, PPH agreement will apply between INPI (French patent office) and IPOS

(Singapore IP office).

Applicants of a French patent application accepted by INPI will be able to request acceleration of proceedings of a corresponding Singapore patent application, and reciprocally, applicants of a

Singapore patent application accepted by IPOS will be able to request acceleration of proceedings of a corresponding French patent application.