UK solicitor body presents Brexit concerns for IP
The representative body for solicitors in England and Wales, the Law Society, has sent a note (pdf) to UK government officials detailing concerns around what leaving the EU will mean for IP continuity.
Organisations that represent the major IP professions in the UK, such as IP solicitors, IP barristers, and patent and trademark attorneys, supported the note, which was sent on December 22, 2017.
“Between them, the IP professionals represented by these organisations have experience of advising, either as employees or as external advisers, the full range of clients for whom IP is important, including individuals, SMEs, major companies, universities, National Health Service Trusts, government agencies and others,” the note reads.
The document provides a summary of the main areas where action by the UK government is necessary in order to prevent disruption in IP in the wake of Brexit, and “ensure continuity and certainty of IP law”.
Recommendations fall under five key areas: continuation of EU-derived IP rights; unitary patent/Unified Patent Court Agreement; exhaustion of rights; rights of representation; and mutual recognition of judgments.
In addition the note stipulates that the UK economy will benefit from the continuity of IP law, as many organisations base their business on the provision or protection of IP and related services. It further states that “EU laws are at the heart of the European (including UK) IP system”.
The government has yet to respond to the Law Society’s note, but on December 21, 2017, the government released its “ Creative Industries Sector Report”, which was compiled to determine the effects of Brexit.
The report acknowledged that “the current UK intellectual property framework is a mixture of national EU/European Economic Area, and international regulation”.
EU IP law “creates certain IP rights which would not otherwise exist” and “harmonised many aspects of the copyright framework”, it continued.
Despite this the government report did not include any information about how leaving the EU could impact IP in the creative industries.
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