- The protection enjoyed in the United Kingdom on the basis of Union law by both UK and EU27 (the remaining EU states) holders of intellectual property rights having unitary character within the Union before the withdrawal date is not undermined by the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. The paper suggests there should be automatic recognition of an IP right in the UK on the basis of the existing, unitary character IP right i.e. that, for example, any EU trade mark rights applying in the UK prior to Brexit should be automatically replaced by UK rights post-Brexit. Further, the fact that use may not be in the UK should not be able to form a basis for revocation of the rights. The implementation should be not result in any financial cost for the IPR holders and any administrative burden should be kept to a minimum. The paper also requires that the UK Government put in place a system to continue the protection of Geographical Indications (GIs) and protected designations of origin (PDOs) which are currently legislated for under EU law and for which there is no current domestic legislation in the UK. However there is no suggestion of a reciprocal recognition of UK-based PDOs or GIs post-Brexit.
- Procedure-related rights (e.g. right of priority) in relation to an application for an intellectual property right having unitary character within the Union still pending on the withdrawal date are not lost when applying for an equivalent intellectual property right in the United Kingdom ie. that where an application is in progress at the point of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the applicant should be entitled to keep the benefit of any priority date when applying after the withdrawal date for an equivalent IPR in the UK.
- Applications for supplementary protection certificates or for the extension of their duration in the United Kingdom on-going before the withdrawal date are completed in accordance with the conditions set out in Union law (and any certificate so granted or extended should provide for protection equivalent to that provided for by Union law.
- Databases protected in the EU27 and the UK before the withdrawal date continue to enjoy protection after that date. This involves waiving the requirements of Article 11(1) and (2) in the EU27 Member States in respect of UK nationals and UK companies and firms; and the UK should not exclude EU27 nationals and EU27 companies and firms from legal protection of databases in the UK on nationality or establishment grounds. No provision for any continuing mutual recognition of database rights is referred to however.
- Exhaustion before the withdrawal date within the Union of the rights conferred by intellectual property rights is not affected by the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. The conditions for exhaustion of each IPR should be those defined by Union law.
These points highlight the key areas that have concerned IP stakeholders since the Brexit referendum and serve as a timely reminder to the UK Government that these issues need to be dealt with prior to Brexit, in one way or another.
Joel Smith, Head of IP at Herbert Smith Freehills, commented, “Whilst it is reassuring that the Commission recognises that there are important issues for continuity of IP protection to be addressed upon Brexit, this paper only begins to scratch the surface for the number of issues that need examining by UK Government”.
Author
