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ARTICLE · 28 JUNE 2016

Brexit - What Next For Intellectual Property?

Gowling WLG
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The UK has voted to leave the EU. What next? Current EU (and incoming) legislation will continue to apply until the UK leaves, and to the extent that EU law has been written into UK national law already it will remain in force indefinitely.

United KingdomIntellectual Property
Gordon Harris
Gordon Harris
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The UK has voted to leave the EU. What next?

Summary

Current EU (and incoming) legislation will continue to apply until the UK leaves, and to the extent that EU law has been written into UK national law already it will remain in force indefinitely. There is no change to the law in the UK today.

There is considerable uncertainty as to whether the UK will emerge from Brexit as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA).

Brexit does not impact the existing system for the grant and enforcement of European patents covering the UK, which will continue, because it is established by agreements made outside the remit of the EU and EEA. However, outside the EEA, there seems no prospect of the UK remaining a part of the new Unified Patent Court (UPC) and Unitary Patent (UP) system. The existing system for the grant and enforcement of European patents covering the UK will therefore remain unaltered. The work currently under way to establish the new court in the UK

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