Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether it is the Government’s policy to negotiate to continue participation in the European Patent Office after the UK leaves the EU.

Joseph Johnson

The UK’s participation in the European Patent Office will be unaffected by leaving the European Union. The European Patent Office and the European Patent Organisation are established by an international treaty, the European Patent Convention, to which the UK is a contracting party. The European Patent Convention is not restricted to EU countries and it currently comprises 38 Contracting Member States.