Finally a Single European Right for the EU? An Analysis of the Substantive Provisions of the European Patent with Unitary Effect

摘要

Last year the EU Patent Package became a reality. It includes a regulation on the unitary patent, a regulation on the translation regime and an international agreement on the Unitary Patent Court. In this article, we highlight the contradictions behind the proposed regulation on the unitary patent, showing how considerable freedom is still given to the national legislations of the Member States. We focus on issues related to the substantive provisions, ill regulated in the author's opinion. Exposing the limitations of the regulation, we discuss the possible consequences of such issues, including fragmentation of the European market and legal uncertainty.