EPO Touts Successful First Year for Unitary Patent Program Despite UPC Technical Issues
“While EU entities led the collective number of unitary patents registered by the EPO, U.S.-based medical technology company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) led all individual entities.”
On June 1, one year after the date when patents with unitary effect became effective in the European Union (EU), the European Patent Office (EPO) announced that it had registered more than 27,500 unitary patents, representing about 25% of all European patents granted over the past year. The EPO also reported that the Unified Patent Court (UPC) has received a total of 373 case filings since that court first became operational one year ago, although news reports indicate that technical issues have caused problems for some parties appearing before the EU’s newest patent court.
European Companies and Medical Technologies Lead Unitary Patent Registrations
Unsurprisingly, European entities accounted for the largest percentage of patent applicants seeking patents having unitary effect across the 17 member nations of the EU that have ratified the Unitary Patent Agreement. A total of 64.2% of unitary patents have been issued to entities situated in the 39 contracting states of the EPO. While those unitary patents are currently effective in less than half of EPO member states, remarks from EPO President António Campinos indicated that the agency was working on integrating the unitary patent across all member states of the EU in the future.
The EPO’s press release on the unitary patent program emphasized that 35.5% of all unitary patents registered by European entities in the program’s first year were obtained by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as of the end of 2023. Although 56.9% of unitary patents registered as of the end of last year went to large European enterprises, the EPO noted that the significant percentage of unitary patents issued to SMEs was indicative of the value of this new patent right in obtaining venture capital for small businesses and startups operating on the continent. Following large enterprises and SMEs, universities and public research organizations were responsible for 7.6% of all unitary patents registered to EU entities in the program’s first year.
After Europe, the second-largest portion of unitary patent registrations belong to companies hailing from the United States, which were responsible for 16.1% of all unitary patents registered by the EPO in the program’s first year. Following the EU and the U.S. were a trio of Asian nations: China, accounting for 6% of all unitary patent registrations; Japan, accounting for 3.8% of registrations; and the Republic of Korea, accounting for 3.3% of registrations.
Inventions for medical technologies was the leading subject matter for inventions protected by unitary patents, representing 12.1% of all unitary patent registrations according to program statistics made available online by the EPO. The total of 3,429 unitary patents registered by the EPO for medical technologies more than doubled the total number of unitary patents registered for all other technology fields including civil engineering (1,630 unitary patents, 5.7%), measurement (1,527 unitary patents, 5.4%), transport (1,514 unitary patents, 5.3%) and electrical machinery, apparatus and energy (1,371 unitary patents, 4.8%).
UPC Case Filings Persist Despite Technical Issues With Case Management Systems
While EU entities led the collective number of unitary patents registered by the EPO, U.S.-based medical technology company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) led all individual entities with 502 unitary patents registered since June 2023. J&J was one of three U.S. entities to place among the top 10 unitary patent registrants ahead of fourth-place Qualcomm (377 unitary patents) and seventh-place Becton, Dickinson & Co. (257 unitary patents). Second-place Siemens AG was the top European registrant of unitary patents with 479 such registrations in the program’s first year. Rounding out the top three registrants was South Korean tech conglomerate Samsung Group, which had registered 382 unitary patents in the program’s first year.
The EPO also recently updated case filing statistics for the UPC, which has received nearly 400 case filings in that court’s first year of operations. This includes 134 infringement actions, with German regional courts serving as the court of first instance for more than 100 of those case filings. UPC case filings also include 165 counterclaims for revocation arising from a total of 63 individual infringement actions. Courts of first instance have also received 32 applications for provisional measures, including injunctive relief to prevent prospective infringement, and 39 revocation actions, 35 of which have been filed in Paris central division as the court of first instance.
Despite the successes touted in the first year of the unitary patent program, news reports have indicated that some technical issues have disturbed the flow of operations at the UPC. Issues with the UPC’s case management system (CMS) were identified as early as January 2023, months before the court became operational. In early May, the UPC agreed to accept a late response to a motion to withdraw a patent infringement case as the month-long delay in filing had been caused by CMS problems documented by the court.
Steve Brachmann
Steve Brachmann is a graduate of the University at Buffalo School of Law, having earned his Juris Doctor in May 2022 and served as the President of the Intellectual Property […see more]
