Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Post‑Brexit UK–EU patents and SPCs: comparison and tracker of EPC/UPC, unitary patents, UK assimilated SPC law, and proposed EU centralised and unitary SPC regimes

Published by a LexisNexis IP expert

Practice notes

Background

This Practice Note offers an overview of the main comparative themes between the UK and the EU regarding patents and supplementary protection certificates (SPCs), emerging since the UK’s exit from the EU on 31 December 2020 (IP completion day). For comparisons of other IP rights across the UK and EU, refer to the following Practice Notes:

Copyright and databases—UK/EU comparison
Trade marks—UK/EU comparison
Designs—UK/EU comparison

Across the EU, IP law is extensively harmonised. Before Brexit, numerous elements of UK IP law aligned with the EU framework, and some unitary EU IP rights (including EU trade marks and EU designs) applied and could be enforced in the UK. On 31 January 2020, the UK left EU membership. Under the Withdrawal Agreement, an 11‑month implementation period followed, ending at 11 pm on IP completion day, during which EU law continued to apply to the UK. After IP completion day, EU law no longer bound the UK and EU unitary IP rights ceased to have effect in the UK. However, the Withdrawal Agreement preserved certain ‘retained EU law’ (REUL), which continued to operate...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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