Article 3

1.   A European patent granted with the same set of claims in respect of all the participating Member States shall benefit from unitary effect in the participating Member States provided that its unitary effect has been registered in the Register for unitary patent protection.
A European patent granted with different sets of claims for different participating Member States shall not benefit from unitary effect.
2.   A European patent with unitary effect shall have a unitary character. It shall provide uniform protection and shall have equal effect in all the participating Member States.
It may only be limited, transferred or revoked, or lapse, in respect of all the participating Member States.
It may be licensed in respect of the whole or part of the territories of the participating Member States.
3.   The unitary effect of a European patent shall be deemed not to have arisen to the extent that the European patent has been revoked or limited.

Case Law

UPC Court of Appeal

IPPT20260209, UPC CoA, PAPST Licensing v EPO
Request to grant unitary effect denied (R. 97 RoP). Article 3(1) of Regulation 1257/2012 cannot be interpreted to allow registration of unitary effect for a granted European patent which does not include the designation of one of the participating Member States [Malta]. No justification can be found to allow for Art. 3(1) of Regulation 1257/2012 to be applied contra legem. Request to refer questions to the CJEU denied (acte  clair) (Article 20 UPCA). The outcome in the present proceedings is based on a literal reading of Article 3(1) of Regulation 1257/2012