In Brussels on Tuesday the agreement on the Unified Patent Court (UPC) was signed; thus a process on creation of a unified European patent system which has spanned five decades has come to fruition – at present with the participation of twenty-five EU Member States.

A long process of negotiation has led up to the signing of the agreement, which is closely linked to adoption of EU decrees on a European unitary patent system – itself the result of strengthened co-operation. The fact that Budapest will be the location of the training centre for the Court’s judges (probably from  2014) is an important recognition of the success of Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The centre of the UPC will be in Paris, while cases related to mechanical engineering patents and pharmaceutical patents will be dealt with in Munich and London respectively. The new court will be the international judicial organisation dedicated to the conduct of litigation related to unitary European patents and the ‘classic’ European patents of individual Member States.

Following the agreement’s entry into effect in Hungary, the new court will replace domestic courts and the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office in cases of patent violation, destruction and annulment orders related to European patents valid in Hungary. During a transitional period of at least seven years these proceedings can still be launched with domestic courts and authorities, but following this the UPC will have exclusive jurisdiction in such cases.

The series of negotiations related to the decrees on a European unitary patent system was one of the successes of the Hungarian EU presidency. On 17 December 2012, following support from the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union adopted the package of regulations implementing reform of the patent system. Following the signing of the agreement the process of its ratification can begin, together with development of the new system. By as early as 2014 patents will receive protection in twenty-five countries (twenty-six with the accession of Croatia).

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)