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Brexit’s impact on Intellectual Property

October 20, 2020

In view of the forthcoming effects of BREXIT on Intellectual Property, we hereby inform you that as of 1st January 2021, EU trademarks and registered Community designs will no longer enjoy protection in the United Kingdom.

However, irrespective of a last-minute political agreement on exit, the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) had already announced the implementation of a series of transitional measures to give continuity to Community registrations in the United Kingdom as of that date.

In particular, the UKIPO will automatically convert EU trademarks and designs to comparable UK rights, at no charge. Ongoing applications will not benefit from this provision but there will be a period of 9 months to apply in the UK for the same protection, whilst maintaining the earlier filing date of the pending EU file.

An additional measure that we recommend to all EU file holders is to update, if necessary, the ownership data of their files, so that the duplication is already carried out with the correct data.

Co-existence agreements, licence fees or charges on EU files will continue to have an effect on UK registrations. If they have been registered with the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) they will also need to be registered with the UKIPO.

Over the coming weeks we will keep you informed of the actions we will take to ensure the proper management of your intellectual property assets in the UK. Meanwhile, we invite you to contact us at ponti@ponti.pro or by phone at +34 934 874 936, as well as to follow the updates in our website, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Do you want us to help you?

Contact us and we will put a team of experts at your disposal.

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