Are we UPP to speed on on Unified Patent Strategy

Patent applications filed at the EPO today could emerge on grant as Unitary Patents or European

High Tech Lemon Squeezing

Patents of Unitary Effect - abbreviated to UPP (which really stands for Unitary Patent Protection). So far most of the news on this exciting topic has concentrated on the preparations for the Unified Patent Court (UPC) and its procedure. UPC even has its own website and its news machine is very exciting and efficient. The date it all goes live could be in 2016.

My latest copy of the CIPA Journal -available to members using Safari or Internet Explorer here contains at page 59 an interesting article by Ellie Purnell reporting on the Manchester meeting which  encouraged us all to keep up-to-date. (If you read it you will understand what I mean when I say "I am squeezing her lemons").

We even know what the renewal fees of the UPP will be when one is eventually granted as this was agreed back in June. They are really very interesting. If you could get an UPP granted quickly you could save a bundle on awful EPO renewal fees on pending applications. Not until the 12th year does a UPP cost more to maintain than an application languishing before the EPO. This is a serious wake-up call to patent attorneys: we need to get patents granted or abandoned. I like their thinking.

Now I expect that all the big firms have been brainstorming their strategies for their clients and are able to advise on whether EPO applications or national applications are the right route on each individual case. However, solos might be a little bit less well positioned for brainstorming so I thought I'd look and see what resources were available to help clients and solo strategists.

The EPO has some useful FAQ here but they are not in the business of offering strategic advice.

The companies filing their priority applications now, the UPP is something they need to take into account, especially if they think they might want national patents rather than put all their eggs in one basket at the unitary patent court. Judging by the is the concern amongst big business for opting out their classical European patents and their distress about the possibility of paying €80 for each opted out patent family, we must expect that industrial patent departments are well abreast of the issues, so are they abandoning the EPO in droves?

The real decision time if you are on the EPO route is after grant. At that stage you have to choose whether to go for a UPP (patent with unitary effect) or national patents or a combination. Combination is necessary because the UPP does not cover all EPO states and will never do so since some of them like Switzerland are outside the European Union. Therefore, you may think it's safe to carry on with the standard PCT EPO route, but is it? If the EPO is going to stall applications with an adverse search report, sticking with the EPO could be an expensive option. Maybe long pendencies are quite attractive to an applicant and therefore choosing our now under-resourced national patent offices for examination might be an interesting option for keeping hopeless patent hopes alive and your competitors wondering.

What do you think. Please draw attention to any relevant articles?