Is UK still part of unitary patent? After Brexit, UK has withdrawn from the UPC system and unitary patents will not cover the country. Its firms and inventors will still be able to request unitary patents and bring legal actions before the UPC within the contracting EU countries. It will be possible to file national UK application and use UK national courts.

United Kingdom withdrawn from UPC

The United Kingdom was originally part of the unitary patent system. However, after Brexit UK has withdrawn from the UPC system and unitary patents will not cover the UK.

Opportunities for UK firms and inventors

UK firms and inventors will still be able to request for unitary patents and bring legal actions before the UPC within the contracting EU countries.

For protection, it will be possible to file national UK application and use UK national courts. Also, patent owners will still be able to file EP validations to United Kingdom as they can now.

A Unitary patent will not cover all Europe. Therefore, after grant, the applicants will be able to request unitary effect, hereby getting a Unitary Patent. It provides uniform patent protection in the participating Member States. Also, it separately validates, as before, in all other EPC countries. Significant percentage of patentees (about 50% of granted European patents) choose to validate their patents in UK, Germany, and France only. For such patentees we advise to continue doing EP validations. That is because unitary patent will be a more expensive way. For example, unitary patent requires full translation and is more expensive to maintain.

If you are interested to find out more about this new unitary patent system in Europe, please do not hesitate to contact us.