Romania to join Unitary Patent system on 1 September 2024​

The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced that Romania is set to join the Unitary Patent system starting on 1 September 2024. This development comes after Romania deposited its instrument of ratification for the Unified Patent Court on 31 May 2024.

Consequently, all European patents granted unitary effect from 1 September onward will automatically include coverage in Romania. This will bring the total number of EU Member States participating in the Unitary Patent system to 18.

The 17 states in enhanced cooperation which already ratified the Agreements and will participate in the Unitary Patent when it starts are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden.

Unitary Patents make it possible to get patent protection in all participating EU Member States by submitting a single request to the EPO, making the procedure simpler and more cost-effective for applicants. Before unitary effect can be registered by the EPO, the applicant must first obtain a European patent.

To obtain coverage in the rest of the countries, such as the United Kingdom or Hungary, applicants will still need to validate EPs nationally in those countries in the same way as today.

If you are considering validating your European Patent application and you want to save money, we recommend choosing one of our online services, where the fees are the lowest in the market. As an example, one of our services offers a 9-country package for €590. We also offer cost-efficient solution file a request for Unitary patent.