Journal

Unitary Patent uptake

It is a truism of travel that to get the best value you go where the locals go; and eat where the locals eat. The same applies in other fields too.

The chart below shows for the first eight months of the Unitary Patent (‘UP’) system, percentage uptake of the UP by applicants from various countries.

This shows significant variation, with Chinese, US, Korean and Japanese applicants being among the least adventurous and the Danes and Spanish (!) most enthusiastic.

As the country with most patent grants in this period, it is worth looking in more detail at the USA.

From the first nine months figures, US proprietors appear more risk averse than the rest of the world, with around half the uptake rate for the unitary patent and twice the opt-out rate.

Given that the fragmented nature of Europe has been a constant source of complaint from the USA, what is the reason for their reluctance to use the UP?

Is there a historian in the house who can advise what happened to state patents after 1790?

Jim Boff (Fellow)