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20 November 2017Trademarks

Marques concerned over lack of Brexit IP negotiations

Marques, the association of European trademark owners, has raised serious concerns over the lack of IP negotiations surrounding Brexit.

“Marques wishes to impress upon all parties involved in the Brexit negotiations the urgent need to start and progress bilateral talks about the technical aspects relating to IP law and procedure as soon as possible,” said the association in its Brexit position paper, released on Friday, November 17.

The association claimed the lack of negotiation is especially concerning as the key expert bodies advising the negotiating parties, the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office, “have not even had exploratory discussions with each other to identify what matters need to be negotiated”.

Marques believes that this is damaging to business interests and undermines short and medium-term confidence in the trademark, design and geographical indication systems of Europe.

“Businesses are already incurring potentially unnecessary costs on contingency arrangements and having to make other speculative decisions that could adversely affect their business and jeopardise their valuable rights,” said the position paper.

And, according to the association, once allowance is made for national ratifications of any agreement, there’s potentially then only 12 months to start and conclude complex negotiations before March 30, 2019, when the UK is due to leave the EU.

Marques said that the governments of the UK and the other 27 EU member states, and the European Commission, need to provide early certainty to businesses on three key objectives.

First, that there will be no loss of existing IP rights and no diminution in the level of IP protection post Brexit.

Second, that businesses will not have to incur any, or at least any material, costs to maintain their existing rights, and third, that there will be no, or as little as possible, administrative burden on businesses in retaining those rights.

A spokesperson for the IPO said: “We recognise that owners of existing EU trademarks want clarity over the coverage of those rights when the UK leaves the EU.

“We continue to engage closely with rights holders and a wide range of stakeholders on this issue. The UK government is looking at various options and we are discussing the best way forward with users of the system.”

In September, the Commission outlined its aims for the treatment of IP rights in the UK after Brexit.

The Commission stated that unitary IP rights, such as the EU trademark, should remain enforceable after the UK exits the EU, and that this could be achieved by the introduction of specific domestic legislation.

Marques said that it supports most of the principles set out in the paper, but noted that it focuses “almost entirely” on the UK’s withdrawal, with “almost no statement” on the position of the other member states on IP rights after Brexit.

“It also only scratches the surface of the myriad issues to be addressed,” said Marques, adding that it was concerned by the UK government’s “complete silence” on this issue.

When WIPR published its story on the Commission’s paper, an IPO spokesperson said that it welcomed the EU setting out its position and that the UK government will want to consider the paper “carefully before commenting further”.

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More on this story

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9 August 2017   The president of the UK Supreme Court has stated that the British government needs to clarify how UK law will be developed post Brexit.
Trademarks
7 September 2017   Unitary IP rights, such as the EU trademark, should remain enforceable after the UK exits the EU, according to a position paper released today.
Trademarks
7 December 2017   As Brexit negotiations continue, the European Commission has prepared a notice for trademark owners regarding a potential scenario in which no agreement is reached between the UK and the EU.