The Patents Act 1977 note to users

This consolidation includes (amongst other changes) the amendments to the 1977 Act.

The Patents Act 1977 (as amended)

Intellectual Property Office is an operating name of the Patent Office

Note to users

This is an unofficial consolidation of the Patents Act 1977, as amended up to and including 31 December 2020. This consolidation therefore includes (amongst other changes) the amendments to the 1977 Act made by:

  • the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
  • the Patents and Trade Marks (World Trade Organisation) Regulations 1999
  • the Patents Regulations 2000
  • the Enterprise Act 2002
  • the Regulatory Reform (Patents) Order 2004
  • the Patents Act 2004
  • the Medicines (Marketing Authorisations etc.) Amendment Regulations 2005
  • the Intellectual Property (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations 2006
  • the Patents (Compulsory Licensing and Supplementary Protection Certificates) Regulations 2007
  • the Legal Services Act 2007
  • the Crime and Courts Act 2013
  • the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013(Competition) (Consequential, Transitional and Saving Provisions) Order 2014
  • the Copyright (Public Administration) Regulations 2014
  • the Intellectual Property Act 2014
  • the Legislative Reform (Patents) Order 2014
  • the Patents (Supplementary Protection Certificates) Regulations 2014
  • the Intellectual Property (Unjustified Threats) Act 2017
  • the Patents (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, and
  • the Intellectual Property (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

In some cases, the amending legislation applies transitional provisions to the changes made to the 1977 Act. A number of the repealed provisions of the 1977 Act have been re-enacted or replaced by provisions in other legislation, and are therefore not reproduced in this document. Some wording of the 1977 Act has been ‘modified in effect’ by other pieces of legislation, although not actually amended, and footnotes show where this is the case. The Manual of Patent Practice should be consulted for more guidance on these matters.

Changes since the previous (1 October 2017) version are as follows:

  • section 41 amended (by the Higher Education and Research Act 2017);
  • section 128A and Schedule A1 amended (by the Patents (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 and the Intellectual Property (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020).

While the greatest care has been taken in this unofficial consolidation, the Office does not accept any responsibility for errors or omissions, nor for any consequences of such errors or omissions.

Legal Section
1 January 2021