Europe's Unitary Patent

On Dec. 10, 2012 the European Parliament approved two draft regulations concerning a unitary patent for its members. Unitary patents will be an additional option to the existing national patents and classical European patents and will offer coverage in the 25 participating European states. Unitary patents may be filed starting either January 1, 2014 or "the date of entry into force of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, whichever is the later."

More information is available from the European Patent Office's (EPO) unitary patent page.