Mewburn Ellis to convert EUTM applications for free post-Brexit
European IP firm Mewburn Ellis yesterday announced that it will manage the conversion of EU trademark (EUTM) applications which are pending when the UK leaves the EU into UK trademark applications (UKTMs) for free post-Brexit.
Earlier this year, the UK government confirmed that all existing EUTMs and registered Community designs (RCDs) will still be protected in the UK even in a no-deal Brexit scenario.
And in November, the government and the EU agreed that existing EUTMs and RCDs will be freely converted into national UK rights after Brexit.
But Mewburn Ellis explained that owners of pending EUTM applications will have to request a re-filing of their marks as national UKTMs within nine months of Brexit to maintain the EUTM filing and priority date.
This will involve paying the standard UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) fees for a new trademark filing, and the re-filing service is one which IP firms would ordinarily charge clients for.
Under Mewburn Ellis’s new service offer, no such re-filing service fee will be charged.
IPO fees will still need to be paid at the point of conversion, and Mewburn Ellis’s offer does not include the firm’s service charge for dealing with the publication and grant of the UKTM—or dealing with any oppositions to it.
Although the UK is scheduled to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, the UK parliament has yet to vote on whether to accept the Draft Withdrawal Agreement reached by UK Prime Minister Theresa May and the European Commission.
After May cancelled parliament’s vote on the agreement earlier this week, EU officials have said that the draft deal will not be renegotiated and the EU is now preparing for a possible no-deal scenario.
Mewburn Ellis said its offer is hoped to save trademark owners time and money, as well as providing some peace of mind amid the ongoing uncertainties of Brexit.
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