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Intellectual Property

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Does Brexit also mean EU trademarks’ exit?

Holders of registered EU trademarks and EU designations of International Registrations have automatically obtained equivalent trademarks in the UK free of charge. These corresponding UK trademarks benefit from the same filing date or priority date as the EU registrations and EU designations of International Registrations.

However, pending EU trademark applications and EU designations of International Registrations have to be re-filed in the UK within nine months (deadline is 30 September 2021) to benefit from the EU filing date, using the normal application process for registered trademarks in the UK. The cost of re-filing the application is in accordance with the UK IPO application fee structure. 

What about designs?

For designs, the same applies as for trademarks.

Holders of registered (European) Community designs have automatically obtained equivalent designs in the UK. No fee was charged for retaining registered protection of designs in the UK post-Brexit.

However, pending design applications have to be re-filed in the UK within nine months (deadline is 30 September 2021) to benefit from the EU filing date, using the normal application process for registered designs in the UK. The cost of re-filing the application is in accordance with the UK IPO application fee structure. 

And patents? 

Patent registrations are based on various legal instruments: national, EU-wide (Unitary Patent Regulation), regional (European Patent Convention) or international.

Brexit has no effect on European patents granted for the UK that are currently in force. They remain in force and fully effective since the European Patent Convention and the European Patent Office (EPO) are independent of the EU. 

Therefore, Brexit has no effect on the filing and prosecution of European applications, whether directly at the EPO or via the PCT route. In new and pending applications, the UK will still be designated and, at the grant stage, the applicant can choose national protection in the UK and other countries. 

However, the UK has withdrawn from the Unitary Patent system, which means that Unitary Patents will not cover the UK. Nevertheless, businesses can continue to obtain national UK protection via the EPO route.

Copyrights 

The protection of copyright works (both in the UK and abroad) remains largely unchanged since there is no “EU copyright” system such as there is for trademarks and designs.

Copyrights are national rights that each country provides separately. However, copyright law is largely harmonised by a number of international treaties and, in the EU, by EU Directives that build on these international treaties. 

A large part of UK copyright law is an implementation of these EU Directives. With the UK having left the EU, the interpretations arising from case law of the Court of Justice of the EU on copyright issues (and in particular on EU Directives) no longer bind the UK courts. Accordingly, Brexit means there is scope for divergent interpretations of copyright law. 

.eu domain names

The registration of .eu domain names is confined to undertakings, organisations and natural persons that have their residence within the EU. All current owners of .eu domain names must prove that they are EU residents. A direct consequence of Brexit is that UK registrants are therefore no longer able to hold their .eu domain names.

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