Filing Date Determines UP Eligibility - Malta’s Late EPC Accession Blocks Unitary Effect

In UPC_CFI_1771/2025, the Unified Patent Court’s Paris Central Division upheld the EPO’s refusal to register unitary effect for EP3327608. The patent originated from a chain of applications dating back to 31 July 2005, which pre‑dated Malta’s accession to the European Patent Convention. Because Malta only acceded to the EPC on 1 March 2007, it could not be designated in the parent or divisional applications, and the granted patent therefore did not extend to Malta.

Under Article 3(1) of Regulation No 1257/2012 and Rule 5(2)(a) UPR, a European patent may only obtain unitary effect if it has been granted with the same claims for all participating Member States. As Malta was a participating UP/UPC Member State at the time the applicant sought unitary effect in 2025, the absence of Maltese coverage meant this requirement was not met. The Court confirmed that unitary effect depends on the actual territorial extent of the granted patent, not on what was legally possible at the time of filing.

Because the conditions of Rule 5 were not satisfied, the EPO was required, by law, to reject the request under Rule 7(2).