25 January 2019
January 2019 - Brexit News: Trade Marks and Designs
After the UK Parliament’s vote against the Withdrawal Agreement on January 15, 2019, the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit has significantly increased.
There are essentially two possible short-term scenarios: - In the event of no-deal, there will be no transition until December 31, 2020, which would have provided IP right owners with more time to prepare the strategies to be adopted. Rather, the UK will leave the EU on March 29, 2019.- The UK Government could request an extension of the Article 50 period beyond March 29, 2019 or unilaterally revoke the Article 50 notification.
In any case, the UK Government already published an information note on September 24, 2018 on the consequences for Trade marks and Designs in the event of a no-deal scenario.
Such note was updated on January 17, 2019 and published along with three additional notes on patents, exhaustion and cross-border and copyright.
We will focus here below on the consequences of a no deal-Brexit in connection with EU trademark registrations and applications and Community registered and unregistered designs.
Continued Protection of Registered EU Trade Marks and Community Designs in the UK
Right holders with an existing EU trade mark registration or registered Community design (...)