Brexit day: no change to IP protection for now

The UK might have left the European Union, but this has no pratical impact on European IP rights for the time being, because the country has entered a transition period scheduled to last until December 31, according to Mathys & Squire, a leading Oxfordbased intellectual property services provider.

The European Patent System is not affected by Brexit. The UK is, and will remain, a member of the European Patent Convention (EPC), which is unrelated to the EU. Other non-EU countries are members of the EPC. Patents will continue to be enforced against infringers in the national courts, as before.

The proposed pan-European Unitary Patent system has been delayed, but the UK government is exploring ways to ensure that the UK can participate in any system that is brought into effect.

UK-based companies can continue to file and own EU trade mark registrations (EUTMs), however after the transition period, new EUTMs will no longer extend to the UK, but will automatically be “cloned” to create equivalent UK rights. A separate UK Trade Mark Registration will be needed to obtain protection for new marks in the UK.

Use of a trade mark only in the UK will no longer be sufficient to keep an EUTM registered.

Designs that are protected in the UK as EU Unregistered Design Rights at the time of Brexit will continue to be protected in the UK as Continuing Unregistered Designs (CUD), which will be established automatically at the time of Brexit.

A new “EU equivalent” UK

Supplementary Unregistered Design (SUD) right is being introduced to mirror the protection currently provided by EU Unregistered Design Rights.