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Brexit and Intellectual Property rights

The EU Commission and the United Kingdom have agreed on a transition period which is intended to begin on March 29, 2019 until December 31, 2020. While the UK will remain a member of the EU during this time, both parties have now presented further details of negotiated and partly already accepted regulations for the time after the transition period.

In this draft Withdrawal Agreement and which is meanwhile available in the version of the negotiation round of 16 – 19 March 2018, Intellectual Property Rights are covered in Title IV “Intellectual Property” (Articles 50 to 57).

The Articles comprise:

  • the continued protection in the UK of EU-wide registered or granted rights (trademarks, designs, plant variety rights; Article 50),
  • the continued registration procedure for such rights free of charge (Article 51),
  • continued protection in the UK of international registrations of trademarks and designs designating the Union (Article 52),
  • continued protection in the UK of unregistered Community designs (Article 53),
  • continued protection of databases (Article 54),
  • right of priority with respect to pending applications for EU trade marks, EU designs and Community plant variety rights (Article 55),
  • provisions for pending applications for supplementary protection certificates in the UK (Article 56),
  • the exhaustion of rights (Article 57).

According to a Technical Note on further separation issues – phase 2 issued by the UK Government and an EU’s Position Paper, published in September 2017, both parties have closely aligned positions as it concerns Intellectual Property Rights.

During the negotiation round of 16 – 19 March 2018, some of these provisions were already agreed upon at negotiators’ level.

The Patent Attorneys and Attorneys at Law of Müller Schupfner & Partner are closely following the development of the topic and may answer your questions or concerns with latest details of the outcome of the negotiations between the EU and the UK relating to your Intellectual Property Rights.