Today, 1 September 2024, Romania joins the Unitary Patent system. This is the first territorial extension of the Unitary Patent since it began in 2023. The addition of Romania increases the number of EU Member States in the Unitary Patent system to 18 and adds a market of 19 million people to the coverage of a Unitary Patent.
Since June 2023 the Unitary Patent has proven to be a popular option upon grant of a European patent, with approximately one in four European patents being registered as Unitary Patents. In so doing, proprietors obtain a single, unitary patent right that covers multiple EU Member States. With Romania now part of the system, Unitary Patents registered from today will cover 18 EU Member States:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Sweden.
The Unitary Patent is enforceable before the Unified Patent Court (UPC). Please see here for more information on Unitary Patents and the UPC.
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