Hunton Retail Law Resource

In a significant change to the European patent system that will impact patent prosecution and enforcement strategies in one of the world’s largest retail markets, the European Unified Patent Court (UPC) begins operations and the European Patent with Unitary Effect (Unitary Patent) will be available at the European Patent Office (EPO) on June 1, 2023. Early requests for Unitary Patent protection on applications that may grant prior to June 1 can be filed starting March 1.