Why One EPO Grant Covering Up to 18 EU States Carries Central Revocation Risk
One EPO grant can cover up to 18 EU states under a single renewal schedule, but a revocation action goes to the Unified Patent Court, and that shifts the cost and risk trade-off.
A conventional European patent granted by the European Patent Office is validated and renewed through different national patent offices. Companies that want protection in several countries have traditionally validated it in each one and renewed each national right on its own schedule.
The Unitary Patent offers a different route: one grant, one renewal table set by the EPO, and the Unified Patent Court for disputes across the participating states. The choice turns on how many states a filer needs, what renewals will cost over the life of the patent, and how much risk a filer accepts when a single court can decide the right's fate for all of them.
How the Route Works
A Unitary Patent is built on a European patent granted by the EPO. It takes effect in the participating states once the EPO registers unitary effect.
The system launched on 1 June 2023 with 17 participating states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden. The EPO says each of those states had ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement by that date.
The Unified Patent Court Agreement was signed on 19 February 2013 and amended on 26 June 2023. The EPO's legal texts page also records that the Rules relating to Fees for Unitary Patent Protection were last amended by a decision of the Select Committee dated 9 October 2025.
The EPO's fee rules and the court's fee table are separate documents. The renewal costs in this article come from the EPO, and the challenge costs come from the court's fee changes as set out in Lewis Silkin's July 2026 update.
Eighteen States, With a Cutoff Date
Romania's ratification took effect on 1 September 2024, bringing the total to 18 participating states. The EPO's launch page ties this to Article 89(2) of the Unified Patent Court Agreement. A Unitary Patent registered before that date covers 17 states. Patents registered since that date cover 18.
Unitary Patents registered on either side of that date can therefore cover different numbers of states.
The EPO issued a notice dated 5 June 2024 that allows applicants to request a delay in registration of unitary effect, so that the right can benefit from the extended territory that includes Romania.
Ireland is not among the states the EPO names as participating. Filers that need coverage there should check its status before relying on the Unitary Patent for it.
What the Renewal Table Costs Year by Year
The EPO's renewal table starts at €35 in year 2 and rises to €105 in year 3, €145 in year 4, €315 in year 5 and €475 in year 6. It reaches €630 in year 7, €815 in year 8, €990 in year 9 and €1,175 in year 10. Years 2 to 10 add up to €4,685.
The table continues to year 20, when the fee is €4,855. The step from year 10 to year 11 is €285, and the step from year 11 to year 12 is €315. The EPO's table gives a total of €35,555 for years 2 to 20, and the year 10 fee is more than 33 times the year 2 fee.
The figures are based on national renewal fees as of 1 April 2026, and the EPO updates the table annually.
UP proprietors who file a statement on licences of right with the EPO can qualify for a 15% reduction on their renewal fees.
A comparison with national payments would need each participating state's own renewal figures, which this article does not set out.
Translation and Attorney Costs
Fees are only part of the cost. The EPO's cost page also gives non-fee cost figures for years 5 to 12. For a conventional European patent validated in the 18 UP countries, including translation, validation and other attorney work, the figure is €41,243. For a Unitary Patent, it is €4,066.
A footnote to the cost page says the attorney costs include translation of 24 pages, and that external costs are adjusted by 29.6% for Eurozone inflation.
These non-fee figures sit outside the renewal table, so the table captures only part of what a filer spends over the same years.
“One right, one renewal schedule and one court deciding whether it survives.”
The Court Fees Behind a Challenge
A challenge to a Unitary Patent is heard by the Unified Patent Court, which publishes its own fee table. From 1 January 2026, the fixed fee for a revocation action is €26,500, up from €20,000. Lewis Silkin's July 2026 update puts the increase at 32.5%, and the fee applies to actions filed after 31 December 2025.
The same update gives other fixed fees. An infringement action rose from €11,000 to €14,600. A revocation counterclaim carries the same fee as an infringement action, capped at €26,500. Applications to preserve evidence or order inspection rose from €350 to €5,000.
A value-based fee applies on top of the fixed fee where the value of the proceedings exceeds €500,000, under Rule 370.3 of the Rules of Procedure. Under Rule 370.6, the court sets that value by reference to the filing party's objective interest at the time of filing.
Where one set of proceedings involves several claimants or defendants, or several patents, one fixed fee and one value-based fee apply under Rule 370.7. Separate revocation counterclaims filed by different defendants, for example because of misaligned deadlines, each attract their own fee.
Small and micro enterprises get a larger reduction under Rule 370.8. That reduction rose from 40%, which meant paying 60%, to 50%, which means paying 50%.
Interim cost awards are capped at 50% of the applicable ceiling, based on Meril v Edwards, unless there are clear indications that the successful party incurred fewer representation costs, or that 50% would be more than reasonable or proportionate. The examples the update gives are Align v Angelalign, at €400,000 against an €800,000 ceiling, and SharkNinja v SEB, at €300,000 against a €600,000 ceiling.
Where a case is withdrawn or settled, the reimbursement rate before closure of the written procedure fell from 60% to 50%. The 40% and 20% rates for other stages are unchanged, and these rules apply to actions filed after 31 December 2025.
Weighing Savings Against Central Revocation
On the cost side, the Unitary Patent replaces separate national renewals with one EPO table. A filer that needs most of the 18 states can set that table against its current national payments, using the figures above.
The risk side works differently. A Unitary Patent covers the territories of the participating states in which the UPCA has taken effect, and a revocation action is brought at the Unified Patent Court. The fixed fee for that action is €26,500 from 2026.
Renewal savings and court costs therefore fall on different sides of the same decision. The fee tables make the cost side straightforward to model. The risk side depends on the filer's markets, its competitors and the states it needs, and the fee figures alone do not settle it.
One right, one renewal schedule and one court deciding whether it survives.
