‘Brexit’: UK lawyers air concerns over departure from EU
Lawyers have aired their concerns in the wake of the UK’s vote to leave the EU, with one saying the uptake of the unitary patent may be reduced and the system itself delayed.
Today, June 24, British citizens voted in favour of leaving the EU. The final results saw the remain camp poll 48% of the votes and the leave camp 52%.
In the build up to yesterday’s vote lawyers repeatedly stressed that there would be uncertainty surrounding intellectual property rights, particularly what would happen to UK-based EU trademarks, registered Community designs, and the unitary patent and concurrent Unified Patent Court (UPC).
Georgie Collins, partner at law firm Irwin Mitchell, said ‘Brexit’ would have a “significant” effect on all three.
She said: “Currently, a division of the UPC is to be located in London. The decision to leave the EU means this court will also need to be relocated. This is likely to cause significant delay to the implementation of the unitary patent (as well as considerable expense).
“The UK’s exit from the EU may reduce the uptake in unitary patents as the value of the patent, because it will no longer cover the UK, will be reduced and may cause a request for a reduction of the planned application fees.”
Earlier today, the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys said it would be working with the government to ensure the best possible outcome for trademark owners.
Under a ‘Brexit’ EU trademarks (EUTMs) and registered Community designs (RCDs) would not be valid in the UK.
Mark Holah, partner at law firm Bird & Bird, said that due to the two-year negotiation period EUTMs and RCDs will still be given protection in the UK until at least June 2018, “possibly longer”.
He added that when the UK does leave the EU, it is almost inevitable that there will be some mechanism for EUTMs and RCDs to be converted into UK rights though it is “unclear how the conversion mechanism will operate”.
“Whatever the mechanism involves, it will be a huge administrative task as there are more than a million EUTMs that could potentially be converted into UK rights,” he said.
He added that trademark and design owners filing applications now have a choice: apply EU-wide and ‘convert’ those rights into UK rights later; or file both UK and EU-wide applications now, to avoid having to rely on the conversion mechanism.
“Whichever option is chosen, EUTMs and RCDs continue to be the best way of protecting trademarks and designs in the EU in most circumstances, so businesses should continue to use these systems,” he added.
Adam Rendle, senior associate at law firm Taylor Wessing, aired concerns around the digital single market and the interpretation of EU copyright law.
“The future impact on UK copyright law will depend on the terms of ‘Brexit’. A model where the UK retains or wishes to retain access to the single market may well require the UK to continue to adopt EU copyright legislation either as a matter of law or as a matter of pragmatism to facilitate doing business in the EU.”
He added: “The question for UK judges would then be whether and to what extent they look to the Court of Justice of the European Union for guidance on the interpretation of domestic law. The political question is whether there would be anything to be gained by adopting divergent copyright laws.”
David Wilkinson, partner at law firm Clyde & co, said: “Over the last 40 years IP laws in the UK have been harmonised with the rest of the EU. So what now? As with most things ‘Brexit’, no-one knows for sure.”
Wilkinson added that although UK court judgments will continue to carry weight internationally, their influence in continental Europe “will inevitably be less, since we will not be part of the same system”.
