Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to maintain a continuation of the EEA exhaustion regime in the UK after the UK leaves the EU.

Exhaustion of rights is one of the IPO’s priorities in preparing for the UK’s exit from the EU, and we are working closely with other departments on this subject.

The current framework means that rights are exhausted after first sale within the EEA. In the draft Withdrawal Agreement the EU and UK have agreed, in principle, that IP rights exhausted in the EU and the UK before the end of the transition period shall remain exhausted in both areas.

We are considering options for the choice of regime in the future.