IP & Brexit: Patents - business as usual

On 19 March 2018 a draft agreement for the withdrawal of the UK from the EU was published. There is no mention of European patents in the draft Agreement because, as previously reported, when it comes to patents in Europe, there is no change. The UK will continue to be a member of the European patent system, which is governed by EPC, a treaty between contracting states to the EPC that is, and will remain, completely separate from the EU. Patent protection in the UK will continue to be available via the European Patent Office (EPO) by validating granted European patents in the UK after grant, and our European patent attorneys will continue to act in the usual way in all matters before the EPO.