Jumping aboard the Brexit bandwagon
On June 23, 2016, the UK electorate voted in favour of an exit from the EU. Immediately after this, lawyers all over the world started considering how the UK’s departure may affect trademark law practice and intellectual property law more generally. In the wake of the uncertainty caused by the referendum result, everyone was so concerned about the potential effect it might have on their existing businesses that they failed to notice that people were also building their businesses around it.
This has happened since time immemorial. There is a new term that the public absolutely loves, and people try to monopolise the term in their respective businesses by filing trademark applications for it. Political portmanteaus have always been a favourite among media and the masses alike, and the recent upsurge in usage of the word ‘Brexit’ in the wake of Britain’s vote to split with the EU has given prominent attention to the word. This has gone to the extent of encouraging entrepreneurs to trademark the word ‘Brexit’ in respect of various goods and services such as movies, tea, beer and even biscuits.
Table 1 lists some applications filed since June 24, 2016.
