Alliance for Intellectual Property identifies Brexit ‘cliff-edge’ risks
The Alliance for Intellectual Property is the latest industry body to lend its voice to the Brexit negotiations.
In a paper called “ IP and Brexit: outstanding ‘cliff-edge’ risks” published yesterday, March 28, the organisation, which campaigns to ensure IP gets the necessary protection, identified a number of “threats” associated with Brexit.
The paper comes a week after the UK and EU announced provisional agreement terms, although some questions, including the protection of geographical indications in the UK post-Brexit, remain unanswered.
While the alliance said the transitional period—which begins on March 29, 2019 and finishes December 31, 2020—would delay “cliff-edge” risks, it claimed that “industry has been clear again and again that continued uncertainty will affect investment decisions long before then”.
The organisation called for “legal certainty and coherence” during negotiations and for specific issues to be acknowledged. It also requested clear definitions of the UK’s negotiation plans and detailed consultation on how these are to be achieved.
A number of potential IP risks and suggestions on how to overcome them were outlined in the publication.
One of the risks is a loss of reciprocity for unregistered design rights. The alliance said that even if equivalent protection for unregistered Community designs is achieved after the withdrawal, the design sector will still be at risk without reciprocal protection from the EU.
To overcome this challenge, the Alliance for IP said that the UK government should prioritise reciprocity agreements in upcoming negotiations.
The UK government has also given no indication that it intends to continue the current, reciprocal exhaustion regime after the country has left the EU, claimed the Alliance.
Other concerns that have been noted by the alliance include: the continued entitlement of UK artists to the artist’s resale right for work sold in the EU; the portability of online content services throughout the EU; and rights to broadcast throughout the EU on a single UK licence.
Eddy Leviten, director general of the Alliance for IP, said that the organisation welcomed the UK government’s efforts and commitment so far, but that a number of issues still remain unresolved.
He said: “Our members need greater certainty, and we hope that the deep concerns outlined in this report can help focus minds, garner explicit commitments on the government’s intentions and guide negotiations to agree a comprehensive and reciprocal trading relationship with the EU.”
The full paper can be accessed here.
The Alliance for Intellectual Property’s report comes days after a coalition of IP organisations, including Marques and the International Trademark Association, sent an open letter to the European Commission offering recommendations on Brexit IP negotiations.
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