Patent law

Patent legislation in the United Kingdom (UK) consists of Acts, Rules and Directions that set out legal rights, duties and procedures for patents.

The Patents Act 1977 PDF document(626Kb)

The Patents Act 1977 is the main patent law in the UK. It sets out the legal rights and duties for UK patents and patent applications, and how UK law relates to the European Patent Convention (EPC) and the Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT). Later laws, including the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the Regulatory Reform (Patents) Order 2004, and the Patents Act 2004 External Link have changed the 1977 Act.

The Patents Rules 2007 and Patent (Fees) Rules 2007 PDF document(430Kb)

The Patents Rules 2007 set out the detailed procedures under the Act, and came into force on 17 December 2007. The latest amendment to these rules took place on 1 October 2011.

  • A concordance PDF document(144Kb) between the Patent Rules 2007 and the superseded Patent Rules 1995 is available.

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 [Patents related sections] PDF document(81Kb)

Sections 274 to 281 and 285 to 295 of Parts 5 and 6 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ("the CDPA") relate to Patent Agents, Patent County Courts etc. Later laws, including the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the Legal Services Act 2007 and the Legal Services Act 2007 (Consequential Amendments) Order 2009 have amended these parts of the CDPA. Discussion of these sections of the CDPA can be found in the Manual of Patent Practice.

Directions

The Patents Act 1977 allows us to give Directions in some areas. These cover setting our hours of business and excluded days, forms required by the rules, and acceptable formats for submitting electronic documents to us.