On Thursday 23 June 2016, around 72% of eligible UK voters turned out and decided, by a narrow margin of 52%-48%, to leave the European Union (EU).This outcome has left the nation deeply divided, along numerous lines. First, there is a division between England and Wales, which voted to leave, and Scotland and Northern Ireland, which voted to stay. Then there is a socioeconomic division between the most affluent and highly educated, who are dominant in the South East and who favoured remaining in the EU, and those who feel disenfranchised by the existing system and voted for the UK to reassert its sovereignty.
I am most concerned, however, about the generational divide. Pre-election surveys indicated that 57% of Britons aged between 18 and 34 who intended to vote supported remaining in the EU, while that proportion rose to around 75% in voters under the age of 25. As one 27 year-old reportedly commented, ‘we're the ones who've got to live with it for a long time, but a group of pensioners have managed to make a decision for us.’
Although I would prefer that the UK stay in the EU, I must say that I have some sympathy for those people who feel that Britain has allowed itself to become too subservient to an ‘undemocratic’ pan-European government, if the immediate reaction of the European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker is anything to judge by. Juncker has said that he wants to ‘get started immediately’ on the process of separation which, he says, is ‘not an amicable divorce’. These are more the words of a petulant child than a committed democrat, who should realise that such a close outcome is hardly a resounding endorsement of the ‘Brexit’ by the British people, and that neither that fractured nation, nor the world at large, will be well-served by rushing into what is likely to be a messy, painful and disruptive process. There are actual, real people, as well as companies and entire nations, who are shocked, uncertain and in need of reassurance and guidance as to what an EU without the UK ‘means’. So if this is what passes for ‘leadership’ in the EU, then maybe Britain is better off ‘out’!
But enough of the general socio-political commentary – you came here to read about patents! So what does all this mean for patents in Europe? There are actually two separate answers to this question.
Importantly, for existing patentees of, and applicants for, European patents the first answer is ‘pretty much nothing’, where we are talking about the established European patent system.
However, the second answer is ‘possibly quite a lot’, where we are talking about the nascent ‘Unitary European Patent’.
There is no such thing as a ‘world patent’. As matters currently stand – and as I expect them to remain beyond the term of my natural life – there is no country on Earth that is willing to completely forego the right to determine what qualifies for a patent monopoly within its borders, or the right to collect ongoing fees to maintain this privilege.
