Free Movement of Goods - Gov.uk

established the Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV),based in Geneva.Patent law remains largely defined through national law and some internationaltreaties such as the European Patent Convention (EPC). However, certain rulesregarding biotechnological patents in Member States are harmonised through EUlegislation. EU legislation also provides for a system of national SupplementaryProtection Certificates, which grant an additional term of protection, after anunderlying patent has expired, to specific medicinal or agrochemical productswhich have obtained a marketing authorisation in the EU.Recently EU Regulations providing for a unitary patent have been adopted underenhanced cooperation. (1) Implementation of the system depends on theestablishment of a unified court under an international agreement. Unitarypatents will be delivered by the European Patent Office (EPO) which is not an EUorganisation but was set up under the EPC in the 1970s. It currently grantspatents for 38 countries.Currently individuals or businesses seeking to protect their inventions acrossEurope can either apply separately to each national patent office for a nationalpatent or they can apply to the European Patent Office (EPO) for a “bundle” ofnational patents; one for each country specified. The process is typically subject tocostly translation provisions and, in some countries, additional validation chargeswhich apply before the EPO granted patent can take effect.An EPO bundle of patents (for the same invention) does not necessarily offeruniform protection in each state, as different national rules apply. Thus, obtainingpatent protection across Europe is not only costly (compared with, for example, theUS), but the protection provided is not uniform, and enforcement must beseparately initiated in each country.The Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement is part of a package of measuresdesigned to establish and enforce unitary patent protection within Europe. Theother measures include two EU regulations which establish the unitary patent andthe associated translation arrangements. When the unitary patent system comesinto operation, alongside the existing mechanisms for patent protection, the unitarypatent will be granted by the EPO and the patentee will be able to enforce hispatent through the unified patent court rather than through separate national courts.(1) Enhanced cooperation allows those countries of the Union that wish to continue to work moreclosely together to do so, while respecting the legal framework of the Union. The Member Statesconcerned can thus move forward at different speeds and/or towards different goals.13