Through a chronological overview this Master's thesis presents the road to the new patent legislation, a part of which is the new patent package consisting of two regulations - Regulation (EU) No 1257/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection and Council regulation (EU) No 1260/2012 implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection with regard to the applicable translation arrangements, which are complemented by the Unified Patent Court Agreement.
The thesis highlights the challenges the EU member states had to face as well as the compromises they had to make in order to adopt the new unitary patent protection. The core of this thesis is the critical presentation of the unitary patent with its many advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is clearly the unitary patent protection throughout a large part of the European Union. However, the most disconcerting among the many disadvantages is the exclusion of Spain, Croatia, and by last reports also Poland from the new patent legislation, which could bring about the opposite effect and further fragment the EU common market.
The thesis also presents the role of the new Unified Patent Court that will have exclusive jurisdiction in respect of classical European patents and European patents with unitary effect in those EU countries that will ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement. The thesis concludes with the observation that the new unitary patent protection will most likely fail to have the desired effect and will not unify patent law on the level of the EU.
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