EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE
Information from the EPO
Notice from the European Patent Office dated 3 December 2024 concerning the publication of the Unitary Patent Guidelines
By decision of the President of the EPO dated 3 December 2024 and pursuant to Rule 3 of the Rules relating to Unitary Patent Protection in conjunction with Article 10(2)(a) EPC, the new Unitary Patent Guidelines (UP Guidelines) will be published for the first time and enter into force on 1 April 2025.
The UP Guidelines will be issued in electronic form only, as a HTML file, and will be available in all three official languages on the EPO website at epo.org.
The new UP Guidelines will provide procedural guidance on Unitary Patent proceedings before the EPO, starting with the filing and registration of requests for unitary effect. They will guide users in their interactions with the Unitary Patent Protection Division, which is in charge of both processing such requests and maintaining the Unitary Patent Register. The Unitary Patent Guide, last issued in October 2024, will largely be incorporated into the new UP Guidelines and will be discontinued on the latter's entry into force.
As a courtesy service, a preview of the English version will be made available on the EPO website at the beginning of February 2025 for advance information.
Once the preview version is published, the EPO will launch an online user consultation on the new UP Guidelines. Detailed information about this consultation, which will run until mid-April 2025, will be published on the EPO website at the beginning of February 2025.