07 Aug 2020
The European patent regime is not an instrument of the European Union ("EU"). The European Patent Convention 2000 and its various protocols are not part of the accumulated body of EU law. The current membership of the European Patent Office numbers 38 countries, which is a far greater number than the current 28 member states of the EU. As a result, the European patent regime, of which the United Kingdom ("UK") is a part, will remain largely unaffected by Brexit. The UK's membership of the Patent Cooperation Treaty will also remain unaffected.