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The European patent with unitary effect (EPUE), more commonly known as the unitary patent, is a new type of European patent in advanced stage of adoption which would be valid in participating member states of the European Union. Unitary effect can be registered for a European patent upon grant, replacing validation of the European patent in the individual countries concerned. The unitary effect means a single renewal fee, a single ownership, a single object of property, a single court (the Unified Patent Court) and uniform protection - which means that revocation as well as infringement proceedings are to be decided for the unitary patent as a whole rather than for each country individually. Licensing is however to remain possible for part of the unitary territory. Formal agreement on the two EU regulations, which made the unitary patent possible through enhanced cooperation at EU level, was reached between the European Council and European Parliament on 17 December 2012. The legality of the two regulations was however challenged by Spain and Italy, who filed in total four actions for annulment, two of which were rejected, and two of which are currently pending before the European Court of Justice.〔(Case C-146/13 ) and (Case C-147/13 )〕 All EU member states except Spain and Croatia participate in the enhanced cooperation. Unitary effect of newly granted European patents can be requested, from the date the related Unified Patent Court Agreement enters into force for the first group of ratifiers, and will extend to those participating member states for which the UPC Agreement had entered into force upon the registration of unitary effect. The negotiations which resulted in the unitary patent can be traced back to various initiatives dating to the 1970s. At different times, the project, or very similar projects, have been referred to as the "European Union patent" (the name used in the EU treaties, which serve as the legal basis for EU competency), "EU patent", "Community patent", "European Community Patent", "EC patent"〔See for instance: European Patent Office (EPO) web site, (''EU Council agrees on next steps regarding the Community patent (EU patent)'' ), News, 8 December 2009. Consulted on 13 December 2009〕 and "COMPAT".〔European Commission, Internal Market, (''Stakeholders debate future policy on patents'' ), Single Market News, Nr. 42, July 2006 (pdf)〕 By not requiring translations into a language of each contracting state, and by requiring the payment of only a single renewal fee for the group of contracting states, the unitary patent aims to be cheaper than European patents. Instead, unitary patents will be accepted in English, French, or German with no further translation required after grant. Machine translations will be provided, but will be, in the words of the regulation, "for information purposes only and should not have any legal effect".〔Regulation 1260/2012, whereas #11〕 The maintenance fees, with a single fee for the whole area, are also expected to be lower compared to renewal fees for the whole area but the fees have yet to be announced. The proposed unitary patent will be a particular type of European patent, granted under the European Patent Convention. A European patent, once granted, becomes a "bundle of nationally enforceable patents", in the states which are designated by the applicant, and the unitary effect would effectively create a single enforceable region in a subgroup of those 38 states, which may coexist with nationally enforceable patents ("classical" patents) in the remaining states. "Classical", non-unitary European patents hold exclusively for single countries and require the filing of a translation in some contracting states, in accordance with . ==Background== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Unitary patent」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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