The IP Federation policy position on Brexit is as follows:

• Certainty is paramount to industry.
• All accrued and pending intellectual property rights must be preserved in the UK post-Brexit. This is a top priority issue.
• The UK must provide for the ability to obtain equivalent UK rights in the UK post-Brexit. This is a top priority issue.
• We support the Unitary Patent (UP), and the Unified Patent Court (UPC) with the UK participating on the current terms, including the location of the branch of the Central Division in London.
• Without a guarantee of continued UK participation post-Brexit, the UK should not ratify the UPC at present. We consider that ratifying the UPC to bring it into effect and subsequently being forced to leave the system would bring an unacceptable amount of uncertainty to industry across the UK and EU.
• Further, certainty is required to ensure that the UK’s ratification would not threaten the validity of the UPC.
• The involvement of non-EU, European Patent Convention Contracting States in the UPC (e.g. Switzerland, Norway) would be a potential advantage to industry, and it may be advantageous for the UK to promote this.
• If the UK cannot or does not wish to participate in the UPC, we would prefer to see the minimum of amendment to the UPC Agreement (i.e. to remove the UK).
• We encourage the use of the Patent Box and R&D tax credits to support the UK as an innovation-friendly economy.

Note that this is the position of the vast majority of our member companies, but not necessarily the position of one member company (Ericsson).