Introduction
CAplus, DWPI, INPADOCDB/INPAFAMDB, and EPFULL cover the patent information originating from the Unitary Patent system and the Unified Patent Court (UPC). Searching the patent family and legal event information and standard retrieval options are fully supported:
- Unified Patent Court opt-outs: Opt‐out information from the UPC is made available in the INPADOCDB/INPAFAMDB legal status data, easily retrieved by the legal status category UOO.
- Unitary Patent Protection: EP C0 family members are covered in all four CAS STNext patent databases including UP participating states (details see below). The patent status indicator is available in CAplus and INPADOCDB/INPAFAMDB.
- Legal status – Legal events concerning the unitary effect request (assigned to the legal status category UER) and usual post grant events as fee payment, licensing, lapse, or withdrawal, are available in INPADOCDB/INPAFAMDB. Also litigation data from the Unified Patent Court are available.
- Monitoring – Users have the ability to monitor patent families for new EP C0 family members or new UP, UPC opt‐out events, or other UP events using the standard CAS STNext workflow.
The EP unitary patent (or European patent with unitary effect) has been in effect since 1st of June 2023. It is an extension of the European patent system with a centralized post‐grant procedure. The unitary effect must be requested at the EPO within one month after grant of a European patent. For further details about the unitary patent see the EPO website for unitary patents.
The unitary patent is currently (January 2025) valid in 18 member states of the European Union: Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), Denmark (DK), Estonia (EE), Finland (FI), France (FR), Germany (DE), Italy (IT), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Portugal (PT), Slovenia (SI), Sweden (SE), and since September 2024 Romania (RO).
Implementation of the Unitary Patent Information in CAS STNext Databases
As soon as the unitary effect is registered for a granted European patent, the EPO publishes a C0 marker in the European patent register. This marker is available as a new member of the EP family with all usual bibliographic data including the unitary patent member states at the time of publication. The publication date of the EP C0 marker is the legal effect date, which is always the same as EP B1 publications date.
EP C0 family members are covered in CAplus, INPADOCDB/INPAFAMDB, DWPI, and EPFULL and can be searched with the search field for the publication kind code (/PK) as EPC0/PK. In INPADOCDB/INPAFAMDB and EPFULL the publication information type in the field /PIT is EPC0 UNITARY PATENT MARKER.
The UP protection states of the EP unitary patent are searchable in the Designated States (/DS) field with and without the prefix U, e.g. => S EPC0/PK (L) DE/DS or => S U DE/DS
As the lifetime status of an EP unitary patent can be determined without doubt, the status in the status indicator field /STI in the databases CAplus and INPADOCDB/INPAFAMDB for an EP C0 document is either ALIVE, DEAD, or TRANSITIONAL. This is in contrast to the granted EP documents with kind codes EPB1 or EPB2 which have the status IND
Example for a display of an EP C0-document in WPIX
Example for a display of an EP C0-document in INPADOCDB
Legal Events Connected with the Unitary Patent in INPADOCDB and INPAFAMDB
The EPO introduced several new legal event codes related to the unitary patent. These events are searchable in the legal status fields LSC, LSC2, LSD, LSDF, LSEC and LSTX.
Opt‐Out of UPC Jurisdiction Events
Unitary patents are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the new international Unified Patent Court (UPC), which decides on the infringement and validity of classic EP patents and unitary patents. For a transition period of 7 years, patent holders of classic EP patents being alive have the possibility to opt‐out of the UPC agreement and stay with the national jurisdictions. See the UPC website for more details regarding opt-out.
The UPC opt‐out legal events EPP01 to EPP06 have been assigned to the legal event category UOO (Opt‐out of UPC Jurisdiction) in the field /LSC2. With an expand on /LSC (e.g., => E EPP01/LSC) you can see the currently available numbers and codes.
| Opt-Out Codes in Category UOO | |
| Event Code | Description |
| EP P01 | OPT-OUT OF THE COMPETENCE OF THE UNIFIED PATENT COURT (UPC) REGISTERED |
| EP P02 | OPT-OUT OF THE COMPETENCE OF THE UNIFIED PATENT COURT (UPC) CHANGED |
| EP P03 | OPT-OUT OF THE COMPETENCE OF THE UNIFIED PATENT COURT (UPC) DELETED |
| EP P04 | WITHDRAWAL OF OPT-OUT OF THE COMPETENCE OF THE UNIFIED PATENT COURT (UPC) REGISTERED |
| EP P05 | WITHDRAWAL OF OPT-OUT OF THE COMPETENCE OF THE UNIFIED PATENT COURT (UPC) CHANGED |
| EP P06 | WITHDRAWAL OF THE COMPETENCE OF THE UNIFIED PATENT COURT (UPC) DELETED |
Example for a Display of Opt-Out Codes in INPADOCDB
Unitary Effect Request Events
The legal events describing the request for a unitary patent are assigned in the field /LSC2 to the new category UER (Unitary Effect Request). With an expand on the LSC‐field all currently available events can be browsed in the LSC index.
| Unitary Request Codes in Category UER | |
| Event Code | Description |
| EP U01 | REQUEST FOR UNITARY EFFECT FILED |
| EP U02 | DATE OF FILING OF REQUEST FOR UNITARY EFFECT CHANGED |
| EP U03 | DATE OF FILING OF REQUEST FOR UNITARY EFFECT DELETED |
| EP U04 | REQUEST FOR UNITARY EFFECT REJECTED |
| EP U05 | DATE AND/OR PURPORT OF DECISION ON REQUEST FOR UNITARY EFFECT FOR THE EUROPEAN PATENT CHANGED [DECISION IS NEGATIVE] |
| EP U06 | DECISION ON THE REQUEST FOR UNITARY EFFECT WAS DELETED |
| EP U07 | UNITARY EFFECT REGISTERED |
| EP U08 | DATE AND/OR PURPORT OF DECISION ON REQUEST FOR UNITARY EFFECT FOR THE EUROPEAN PATENT CHANGED [DECISION IS POSITIVE] |
| EP U12 | REQUEST FOR UNITARY EFFECT WITHDRAWN |
| EP U14 | WITHDRAWAL OF THE UNITARY EFFECT REQUEST DELETED |
| EP U50 | REQUEST FOR RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF RIGHTS FILED (UNITARY EFFECT) |
| EP U52 | REQUEST FOR RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF RIGHTS DELETED (UNITARY EFFECT) |
| EP U53 | REQUEST FOR RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF RIGHTS ACCEPTED (UNITARY EFFECT) |
Note, that the date for the request of the unitary effect and the registered decision after the request is given in the field Legal Status Date in Force (/LSDF), not in the Legal Status Date (/LSD).
In INPADOCDB/INPAFAMDB a search with “EPC0/PK” or the legal event code EPU07 retrieves all European patents with unitary effect.
All other legal events related to a unitary patent, concerning events like fee payment, licensing, and lapse, reinstatement or withdrawal of the unitary patent are indexed in the already existing legal events categories. Currently only some of those events are available in the database:
| Unitary Request Codes in Other LSC2-Categories | |
| Event Code | Description |
| EP U0A | MEMBER STATES COVERED BY UNITARY PATENT PROTECTION DELETED |
| EP U1B | UNITARY EFFECT: PLACE OF BUSINESS CHANGED |
| EP U1H | NAME OR ADDRESS OF THE PROPRIETOR CHANGED AFTER THE REGISTRATION OF THE UNITARY EFFECT |
| EP U1I | NAME OR ADDRESS OF THE PROPRIETOR DELETED AFTER THE REGISTRATION OF THE UNITARY EFFECT |
| EP U1K | TRANSFER OF RIGHTS OF THE UNITARY PATENT AFTER THE REGISTRATION OF THE UNITARY EFFECT |
| EP U1N | APPOINTED REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE UNITARY PATENT PROCEDURE CHANGED AFTER THE REGISTRATION OF THE UNITARY EFFECT |
| EP U1O | APPOINTED REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE UNITARY PATENT PROCEDURE DELETED AFTER THE REGISTRATION OF THE UNITARY EFFECT |
| EP U15 | DATE OF REGISTRATION OF UNITARY EFFECT CHANGED |
| EP U16 | DATE OF REGISTRATION OF UNITARY EFFECT DELETED |
| EP U18 | DATE OF LEGAL EFFECT OF UNITARY PATENT PROTECTION DELETED |
| EP U20 | RENEWAL FEE FOR THE EUROPEAN PATENT WITH UNITARY EFFECT PAID |
| EP U21 | RENEWAL FEE FOR THE EUROPEAN PATENT WITH UNITARY EFFECT PAID WITH ADDITIONAL FEE |
| EP U22 | PAYMENT OF RENEWAL FEE FOR THE EUROPEAN PATENT WITH UNITARY EFFECT WAS REDATED |
| EP U24 | PAYMENT OF RENEWAL FEE FOR THE EUROPEAN PATENT WITH UNITARY EFFECT WAS DELETED |
| EP U30 | ACTION LODGED BEFORE THE UPC [INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE UPC] |
| EP U31 | ACTION LODGED BEFORE THE UPC CHANGED [INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE UPC] |
| EP U42 | PUBLIC NOTIFICATION FOR THE EUROPEAN PATENT WITH UNITARY EFFECT |
| EP U65 | PATENT WITH UNITARY EFFECT INTERRUPTED [REASON IN FREE TEXT] |
| EP U68 | PROCEEDINGS RELATED TO THE PATENT WITH UNITARY EFFECT RESUMED |
| EP U70 | RIGHTS IN REM OR LEGAL MEANS OF EXECUTION FOR EUROPEAN PATENT WITH UNITARY EFFECT REGISTERED |
| EP U76 | LICENCE FOR THE EUROPEAN PATENT WITH UNITARY EFFECT REGISTERED |
| EP U79 | STATEMENT CONCERNING LICENCES OF RIGHT FILED [UNITARY EFFECT] |
| EP U82 | STATEMENT CONCERNING LICENCES OF RIGHT WITHDRAWN [UNITARY EFFECT] |
| EP U90 | RENEWAL FEES NOT PAID: NOTING OF LOSS OF RIGHTS |
| EP U93 | UNITARY PATENT LAPSED |
See also the HELP UNITARYPATENT in the databases CAplus, INPADOCDB/INPAFAMDB, DWPI, and EPFULL.