Romania is now part of the Unitary Patent system in Europe

As announced a few months ago, Romania is as of September 1^st, the 18^th member state of the Unitary Patent (UP) system. This means that all granted European patents, for which a unitary patent is registered as from September 1^st, will be effective in the following 18 states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden.

This does NOT impact existing European patents with Unitary effect that were registered before this date. They will be effective in 17 countries.

From now, new court cases before the Unitary Patent Court (UPC) will also be effective in Romania, for:

• European patents with Unitary effect registered as from September 1^st, and
• Classic European patents, not opted out of the UPC, which are effective in Romania (and other countries)

As before, you need to make the important decision, for each granted European patent, to:

• Either validate your patent via the classic route only, and optionally opt out of the UPC
• Or register the unitary effect for your patent and optionally combine this with classic validations in member states not part of the UPCA

Don’t hesitate to consult your patent expert at Gevers to determine the best course of action for your specific patents.