The UK Parliament voted last night to ask the EU to delay Brexit beyond 29th March 2019.

The vote for an extension comes after a week of key parliamentary votes in which the UK Parliament voted to reject a no deal Brexit under any circumstances following a vote rejecting the second deal put forward by the Prime Minister on Tuesday 12th March 2019.

Any postponement of Brexit will require the consent of all EU members unless the UK withdraws its notification that it intends to leave the EU.

Implications for Intellectual Property:

The European Patent Office (EPO) is not an EU institution, so Brexit will have no effect on the current patent system.  Regardless of whether there is a deal or not, post-Brexit, patent applications filed by Carpmaels & Ransford at the EPO will still cover the UK (via conventional national validation), and they will be litigated in the UK national courts as usual. The European Patent Convention will continue to be part of UK law, and our European patent attorneys will continue to act in the usual way in all matters before the EPO.

Further information can be found on our Brexit website pages. These provide further guidance on the position of intellectual property post-Brexit and in a “no deal” scenario. However, as a European IP firm, we are set up to continue to represent our clients in all of their European IP matters regardless of the outcome of Brexit. You will continue to receive the high levels of service and client care which you have come to expect. We will continue to monitor the situation as the subsequent votes take place.

If you have any queries in the meantime about the impact of Brexit on your IP strategy please speak to your usual contact at the firm.