The territorial scope of a Unitary Patent

26This means that, although 25 EU Member States are currently participating in the Unitary Patent scheme, Unitary Patents registered at the outset will not cover all 25 of their territories because some of them have not yet ratified the UPCA. You will find a list of the EU Member States in which the UPCA has taken effect on the EPO's website. You can also check the UPCA's status of ratification on the website of the Council of the European Union.

27It is also likely that ratifications of the UPCA by other participating Member States will take place successively. When an EU Member State participating in enhanced cooperation ratifies the UPCA after the launch the Unitary Patent system, a new generation of Unitary Patents is created with extended territorial coverage. The second Unitary Patent generation came into being on 1 September 2024, when Romania acceded to the Unitary Patent system. In practice, this means that the geographical scope of Unitary Patents may differ, depending on when unitary effect is registered.  

28The territorial coverage of a given generation of Unitary Patents stays the same for their entire lifetime, irrespective of any further EU Member States participating in enhanced cooperation and of any subsequent ratifications of the UPCA after the date of registration of unitary effect. In other words, a registered Unitary Patent's territorial coverage will not be extended to other Member States which ratify the UPCA after the EPO has registered its unitary effect. For example, Unitary Patents registered before 1 September 2024 – i.e. first-generation Unitary Patents – cover only the original 17 EU Member States and do not extend to the territory of Romania. Unitary Patents registered on or after 1 September 2024 – i.e. second-generation Unitary Patents – cover the original 17 states in addition to Romania. 

29If your European patent is granted shortly before the accession of a new participating Member State to the Unitary Patent system and you wish to benefit from the new Unitary Patent generation's broader coverage, you may file a request to delay the registration of unitary effect together with the request for unitary effect. Such a delay can be requested up until the new accession takes effect. The geographical scope of your Unitary Patent will then extend to the new participating Member State(s) as well. The EPO informs users about such a possibility and the applicable conditions in a dedicated notice published in the Official Journal, as in the case of Romania when it joined the Unitary Patent system on 1 September 2024 (OJ EPO 2024, A61).

30If you filed a request to delay registration but later change your mind and would like to request immediate registration of unitary effect, you can withdraw your original delay request by sending a written communication to the EPO. This can be done as long as the processing of the request for unitary effect is still pending with the Unitary Patent Protection Division. If a request to delay registration is withdrawn, the standard examination and registration of the request for unitary effect will resume.