human: How much will a Unitary Patent cost?
assistant: Costs before grant: The costs for filing and prosecuting a European patent application will remain the same. There is no official fee for a request to delay the grant of a European patent, an early request for a unitary effect, or the request for a Unitary Patent.

Translation fees: During a transitional period of at least 6 years, a translation of the whole patent specification is required. If the language of the patent is English, a full translation of the specification into any other official language of the EU is required. If the language of the patent is German or French, a full translation of the specification into English is needed. Please note that the “translation fees” transitional period is at least 6 years, whereas the “opt-out” transitional period is 7 years (see below).

Renewal fees after grant: The renewal fee for maintaining a Unitary Patent approximately equals the sum of the renewal fees of the four largest EPC member states (DE, FR, GB, NL). The total cost of renewal fees over the first ten years, which is the average lifetime of a European patent, will be less than 5,000 EUR.