The UK government recently issued guidance on the impact of a ‘no deal Brexit’ on patents and related intellectual property rights.
The good news for rights holders and prospective rights holders is that it will essentially be business as usual for the foreseeable future.
For patents there are only a few aspects of law that could be affected since relatively little relevant legislation is derived from the EU. The areas in question are supplementary protection certificates and specific provisions on compulsory licences as well as certain exemptions from patentability and infringement.
In the event of a no deal Brexit the government has stated that the relevant EU legislation and/or its UK implementing legislation will be retained. Existing systems will therefore remain in place and will subsequently operate independently from the EU regimes. This means that existing rights and licences, including supplementary protection certificates, will remain in force automatically and there will be no significant change to legal requirements or application processes.
For the possible unitary patent and Unified Patent Court systems, assuming these systems do subsequently come into effect the UK will explore the possibility of remaining a member. If the UK were to withdraw, however, any existing unitary patents would give rise to equivalent UK rights and continued protection would be ensured. Further, enforcement of UK patents would be through UK courts, as it is now.
As a non-EU agreement there will be no change to the European patent application system or UK rights of representation.
The last question addressed is the issue of service addresses and legal professional privilege. On these points the guidance states that there will be no change.
Patent proprietors therefore do not need to take any action for the foreseeable future.