The Isle of Man is signing up to a Europe-wide system for registering patents.

It is planned for the agreement to continue beyond Brexit.

In the island, patent law is covered by the 1977 Patents Act and, for the Isle of Man’s agreement to become part of the Unified Patent Court, it needs to update that legislation. An amendment order has been drawn up.

Patents are registered to enable businesses and individuals to take action against anyone who uses their idea without permission.

A government spokesman said: ’Normally patents need to be registered individually with each country in which a business wishes to sell its product. The Isle of Man does not have its own patent register. Instead, patents granted by the UK Intellectual Property Office automatically cover both the UK and the Isle of Man.’

Currently, although a patent can be registered through the European Patent Office, applications are assessed by national patent offices, resulting in individual patents in each country and forcing a business to pursue action against infringements through different court systems.

Agreement for a unitary system for EU countries was reached in 2013, but needs to be ratified by the required number of member states, including the UK.

’The European Patent Office is a non-EU international organisation and, though the Unified Patent Court is open to participation by EU member states it is a non-EU international court,’ said the spokesman.

’The aim is for the UK - and the island - to remain a part of the system despite Brexit, though this will depend on the outcome of Brexit negotiations.’