EU High Court Rejects Spain’s Challenge To Unitary Patent

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) today announced it has dismissed challenges by Spain against the European Union unitary patent package, ostensibly clearing the way for an EU patent to go into effect next year.

The CJEU press release on the decision is available here [pdf].

The press release is entitled: “The Court dismisses both of Spain’s actions against the regulations implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection.”

The patent package adopted in 2012 includes the unitary patent regulation [pdf], regulation on translations [pdf], and the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court [pdf].

Spain argued its invalidity based on language requirements – it does not include Spanish. But the court found, in essence, that “the language arrangements established by the regulation make access to the EPUE and the patent system as a whole easier, less costly and legally more secure.” EPUE refers to the European patent with unitary effect system.

Spain also argued that the regulation undermines the principle of effective judicial protection. But the court found that the regulation “merely (i) establishes the conditions under which a European patent previously granted by the European Patent Office pursuant to the provisions of the EPC may, at the request of the patent proprietor, benefit from unitary effect and (ii) provides a definition of that unitary effect.”

The court further rejected the notion that the language of the regulation regarding uniform protection of intellectual property rights throughout the union is not an adequate legal basis for the regulation.

And the court found against Spain’s charge that “the assignment to the participating Member States acting in a select committee of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation of the power to set the level of renewal fees and to determine the share of distribution of those fees.”