UPC: Identical Claims for All Participating Member States Required for Unitary Effect

In this key ruling, the Court of Appeal addresses the strict territorial requirements for registering the unitary effect of a European patent. Article 3(1) of the Unitary Patent Regulation cannot be interpreted as permitting the registration of unitary effect for a granted European patent that does not cover the designation of all participating Member States. A request for registration of unitary effect must therefore be rejected if the underlying European patent was not granted for all Member States participating in the Unitary Patent Regulation. In the underlying case, Malta – which only acceded to the European Patent Convention in 2007 – could not be designated in the original application dating from 2005; thus, the requirement of identical claims for all participating Member States was not met. An interpretation allowing unitary effect with the exception of individual Member States contradicts the clear wording of the Regulation and the principle of uniform territorial protection. (UPC 9. 2. 2026, CoA 8/2026)