Brexit Businesses will likely need to re-file their patents and trademarks in the UK following the Brexit vote, leading intellectual property lawyers have warned.

The decision to leave the European Union puts a big question mark over "automatic EU-wide IP protection," says patent law specialist Iain Connor of Pinsent Masons, writing in Out-Law.com.

EU-registered trademarks provide rights across Europe, but with the UK leaving, officials would have to agree on a new system to extend those rights to the UK and vice-versa. Whether that is likely to happen and in what timeframe is just one of many questions raised by the referendum.