In her conference speech Theresa May vowed that Brexit would mean “our laws will be made not in Brussels but in Westminster. The judges interpreting those laws will sit not in Luxembourg but in courts in this country. The authority of EU law in Britain will end”. Well, not quite…

The government has today decided to ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement, which accepts both the primacy of EU law and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice over patents in Britain. Article 20 of the agreement says “the Court shall apply Union law in its entirety and shall respect its primacy”. Article 21 says “Decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union shall be binding on the Court”. This is just one aspect of EU law, but it means May is not keeping her conference promise – on patents the EU will still have primacy…