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In the short term, EU vote won’t have an immediate effect

AMONG the concerns that the referendum result has caused British businesses is its potential effect on their intellectual property. There should be little short-term effect.  In the longer term, effects will depend on the intellectual property right and on which Brexit scenario actually takes place. For patents, changes will be minimal. UK Patents are unaffected. For European Patents, the European Patent Organisation is not an EU institution, and the UK’s membership will continue unchanged. UK Trade Mark Registrations are unaffected.

AMONG the concerns that the referendum result has caused British businesses is its potential effect on their intellectual property. There should be little short-term effect.  In the longer term, effects will depend on the intellectual property right and on which Brexit scenario actually takes place. For patents, changes will be minimal. UK Patents are unaffected. For European Patents, the European Patent Organisation is not an EU institution, and the UK’s membership will continue unchanged. UK Trade Mark Registrations are unaffected. EU Trade Marks Registrations currently extend to the UK, which will continue until the UK leaves the EU. The protection of the EU Registration then ‘retracts’ from the UK, potentially leaving the mark unprotected here.  In some scenarios, EU Trade Marks will be treated as if they were UK national rights, either automatically or on request. In other scenarios, the trade mark owner might need to protect the mark by filing a new UK Trade Mark Application. The UK trade mark system is basically ‘first come first served’, so it would be advisable to consider this sooner rather than later. UK Registered Designs are unaffected. (European) Community Registered Designs and Community Unregistered Designs currently extend to the UK. This will continue until the UK leaves the EU, when their protection ‘retracts’ from the UK. In some scenarios, Community Registered Designs will be treated as if they were UK rights, either automatically or on request. In other scenarios, the design could be left unprotected in the UK, so owners of recently filed Community Design Registrations should consider filing corresponding UK applications. Designs must (roughly speaking) be new to the public or at most one year old to be registrable, so should be filed promptly if required. Older designs might not be protectable. Copyright would be largely unaffected, being governed by international treaties predating the EU. For online copyright, the EU has been active in modernising copyright for the digital age, so UK and EU law might soon diverge. There may also be complications for IP lawyers, but most firms have set up contingency plans so clients are unaffected. IP owners should keep in touch with their advisors, who will be able to give more definitive advice, once more details of Brexit are known. For more information, contact Franks & Co on 01604 632463, email or visit the website www.franksco.com

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