INTA Design Conference 2018: Brexit and 1,000 design filings in a week
Steve Rowan, divisional director of trademarks, tribunals and designs at the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO), explained yesterday at INTA’s Power of Design conference in London that the IPO had received 1,000 design filings in just one week.
Simon Bennett, IP partner at Fox Williams, led the interview with Rowan on designs after Brexit.
Currently four design rights are available in the UK: two UK design rights (registered and unregistered) and two EU design rights (registered and unregistered). Notably, UK unregistered designs last up to 15 years, whereas unregistered Community designs are afforded just three years of protection.
In terms of registered designs, “most filed by UK businesses are EU registered designs, although that has been changing recently”, Bennett noted. According to Rowan, people are “hedging their bets” and double-filing their designs in the UK as well as the EU.
“From day one we’ve seen an increase in the number of filings with the UKIPO,” Rowan said. Previously, roughly 6,000 designs would be registered each year in the UK, but “just last week, we had had 1,000 in a week”, he added.
Rowan described it as a “fairly big shift”. He suggested the increase is in part due to fee reductions that the IPO has put in place, but also due to larger firms filing in the UK to claim priority.
After Brexit, the state of unregistered Community designs, which many designers rely on, is unclear.
Rowan said “We identified [unregistered Community designs] really early as being a key concern”. Although there have been “various different proposals” for them, there is not yet a solution to this issue.
“We’re very conscious that people are concerned about it and over the coming months we want to have discussions with designers so we can get a real feel of what they need,” Rowan added.
Rowan explained that, following the result of the Brexit vote, an emergency board meeting took place at the IPO. Although the office is keen to address policy concerns stemming from Brexit, the IPO is also very conscious that the UK’s departure from the EU will have an operational impact on the day-to-day work.
“We knew users would be confused and concerned about what this means for their rights,” Rowan said. He added that the office released ‘fact sheets’ after the Brexit vote to prevent “misinterpretation” of what it will mean.
There were “misconceptions about UK businesses not being able to use the EU design system” after Brexit, Rowan explained. You don’t have to be a UK citizen to apply for and acquire EU rights, he added, and regardless, “no-one should lose any rights under the provisions of the withdrawal agreement”.
In contrast to these misconceptions, Rowan highlighted the “very real issues” around rights of representation for the UK, post-Brexit.
He said the IPO is working with the Ministry of Justice with regard to the status of ongoing cases as well as the impact that Brexit will have on UK judges who also sit as EU judges.
But the primary issue is the status of designs, both registered and unregistered, after Brexit. Ongoing cases are important for a “small number” of people, but “hundreds of thousands of rights are impacted by these two areas”, he explained.
Despite the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, Rowan intends to maintain the IPO’s relationship with the European Union Intellectual Property Office. He expects that “future cooperation” between the IPO and European offices, as well as non-European IP offices, will continue.
“Whatever the future economic partnership holds, the UKIPO has and will have good relationships,” Rowan promised.
He said the IPO continues to exchange information and best practices with European offices: “Any piece of IP development is shared and that’s certainly going to continue.”
The interview had opened with Bennett’s caveat that “we’re not going to give you any answers to Brexit in the half hour we have available”.
INTA’s Power of Design conference finishes today, February 27.
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