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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on research-led SMEs of the reported decision to withhold the UK's participation in the Unified Patent Court and the associated Unitary Patent.

Following publication of the Government’s approach to negotiations with the EU on 27^th February, the Government will not be seeking continued participation in the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court. Participating in a court that applies EU law and is bound by the CJEU is inconsistent with our aims of becoming an independent self-governing nation.

All businesses, including SMEs, will be able to maintain patents in the UK and challenge or enforce them before UK courts as they do currently.