CIPA: IP in a post-Brexit world
The patent profession may form a relatively small part of the UK’s legal landscape, but it punches above its weight.
UK chartered patent attorneys contribute in excess of £1.1 billion ($1.4 billion) annually to the British economy. This is comparable to the revenue generated by some of the UK’s younger and more visible sectors, such as the video games industry (£1.52 billion). It also compares well to the much-championed UK fishing industry, with the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) publishing statistics that recorded its takings abroad as £980 million in 2017.
The majority of this patent revenue comes from foreign companies choosing to use British representation. In fact, of the 40,000 European patent applications filed each year by the UK’s European patent attorneys, nearly 90% are for clients from overseas.
Although UK patent attorneys form just a fifth of all European patent attorneys practising today, they file a third of all European patent applications. As readers will know, the European Patent Office (EPO) is not an EU institution, so the UK’s 2,300 European-qualified patent attorneys will continue to represent their clients there after the UK’s departure from the EU.
