The European Single Patent system came into effect on 1 June 2023. The patentee can submit an application for a "single effect request" to the European Patent Office within one month after the announcement of the European Patent grant, and the patent can be effective in all member States of the single patent system and obtain uniform protection. So far, 17 countries have ratified the agreement (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden). Other European countries that have not yet joined the system, such as Iceland, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom, still need to complete the registration in their territory through the traditional European patent validation procedure.

In terms of annual payment of patent fees, for a single patent, the patentee only needs to make a one-time payment to the EPO in one currency every year; In the case of traditional European patents, the patentee pays an annual fee in each effective country, which is based on the national currency of that effective country. Here we take Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands as examples, respectively, from the single patent and the traditional European patent 20-year maintenance fees to make a comparison:

As can be seen from the above table, if the patentee wants to obtain patent protection in four or more member States, it is better to choose the single patent route in terms of patent fees, service fees and total costs. However, if the patentee needs protection in only three or fewer countries, the traditional enforcement method will incur less official fees, but the service fee will still need to be assessed.