III. Simultaneous Protection

This part provides information on whether, and if yes to which extent, simultaneous protection is allowed for an invention covered by, on the one hand, a European patent with unitary effect or a European patent and, on the other hand, a national patent. The relevant provisions are specified in the table below.

Under Article 139(3) EPC, any Contracting State may prescribe whether and on what terms an invention disclosed in both a European patent application or patent and a national application or patent having the same date of filing or, where priority is claimed, the same date of priority, may be protected simultaneously by both applications or patents (see also Article 140 EPC).