"Can Somebody register my Sign as a British Trade Mark now that EU Trade Marks no longer apply to the UK?"

Menai Science Park, Anglesey

© 2018 Jane Elizabeth Lambert 

  

Jane Lambert

Last Tuesday I gave talks on what every startup and SME should know about IP to the BradfordNetwork and the Menai Science Park Enterprise Hub. You can download my slides for the BradfordNetwork and the Enterprise Hub from Slideshare.  At each of those talks, I was asked how to protect a brand in the UK now that the European Union trade mark no longer applies to the UK.  As this question is likely to have been asked in places other than Wales and Yorkshire I decided to reply in NIPC Branding. 

The good news to people who hold EU trade marks is that your sign is still protected in the UK in respect of the same goods and/or services even though your EU trade mark ceased to apply to the UK at 23:00 on 31 Dec 2020.  Art 54 (1) (a) of the agreement by which the UK withdrew from the EU provides that:

"the holder of a European Union trade mark registered in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 of the European Parliament and of the Council1 shall become the holder of a trade mark in the United Kingdom, consisting of the same sign, for the same goods or services;"

You do not even have to pay for the registration because art 55 (1) of the same agreement states:

"The registration, grant or protection pursuant to Article 54(1) and (2) of this Agreement shall be carried out free of charge by the relevant entities in the United Kingdom, using the data available in the registries of the European Union Intellectual Property Office, ....."

These articles were carried into effect by reg 2  and Sched 1 of The Trade Marks (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI2019 No. 269) as amended by reg 8 and reg 9 of The Intellectual Property (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020 No 1050).

Those regulations inserted a new s.52A and Sched. 2A into the Trade Marks Act 1994:

"Schedule 2A makes provision for European Union trade marks (including certain expired and removed marks) to be treated as registered trade marks with effect from IP completion day and about certain applications for a European Union trade mark made before IP completion day."

"IP completion day" means the end of the transition period when EU law continued to apply to the UK which happened at 23:00 on 31 Dec 2020.  Para 1 (1) of the  new Sched, 2A, provides:

"A trade mark which is registered in the EUTM Register immediately before IP completion day (an “existing EUTM”) is to be treated on and after IP completion day as if an application had been made, and the trade mark had been registered, under this Act in respect of the same goods or services as the existing EUTM is registered in the EUTM Register."

You don't need to do a thing unless you do not want a British registration in which case you can opt out under para 2 of the Schedule. In its new story, Intellectual property after 1 January 2021, the IPO says:

"receive a UK registration certificate, but you will be able to access details about the trade mark on GOV.UK and can take a screen shot from there as evidence of your right."

So if any chance wants to try to grab your sign in the UK he or she will find his way blocked by your registration just as he or she would have done before 23:00 on 31 Dec 2020.

Your EU registration will continue to apply to the other 27 member states of the EU in the same way as it has always done.  The only problem is that you will no longer be able to seek an EU wide injunction from a court in the UK because the courts of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have ceased to be EU trade mark courts.  Happily, the Commercial Court of the Republic of Ireland is still an EU trade mark court and my colleague James Bridgeman SC who qualified as a trade mark attorney before reading for the Irish Bar can continue to represent you in that court as well as the Court of Justice of the European Union, the General Court and the courts of England and Wales.

If you want to learn more about this subject, you may want to consult How Brexit has changed IP Law 17 Jan 2021 and my presentation and handout on the topic on 26 Jan 2021.  If you want to discuss this article with me you cn call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form at any time.

Geographical Indications after Brexit

Stilton Cheese

Author Dominik Hundhammer

Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 unported

Source Wikipedia

Jane Lambert

According to the WIPO 

"A geographical indication (GI) is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin. In order to function as a GI, a sign must identify a product as originating in a given place. In addition, the qualities, characteristics or reputation of the product should be essentially due to the place of origin. Since the qualities depend on the geographical place of production, there is a clear link between the product and its original place of production."

As I noted in Geographical Indications 27 May 2010 parties to the WTO Agreement are required to protect such signs by arts 22 and 23 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and art 10bis of the Paris Convention.

As I also noted in Geographical Indications HM government discharges those international obligations through trade mark law, the action for passing off and special EU legislation.  The EU legislation will cease to apply to the UK after 29 March 2019 except to the extent that it is preserved by s.2 and s.3 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

Paragraph 39 of the white paper on The future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union states:

"The UK will be establishing its own GI scheme after exit, consistent with the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS). This new UK framework will go beyond the requirements of TRIPS, and will provide a clear and simple set of rules on GIs, and continuous protection for UK GIs in the UK. The scheme will be open to new applications, from both UK and non-UK applicants, from the day it enters into force."

If the UK leaves the EU with a withdrawal agreement the legislation for this new scheme will be passed in the implementation period that will subsist between 30 March 2019 and 31 Dec 2020.

On 24 Sept 2018 the government published Producing food products protected by a ‘geographical indication’ if there’s no Brexit deal setting out its proposals for protecting geographical indications if there is no withdrawal agreement:

"When we leave the EU we will set up our own GI schemes which will be WTO TRIPS compliant, broadly mirror the current EU regime and be no more burdensome to producers. Details to be explored in a public consultation include the UK GI logo and appeals process. The protections will be similar to those enjoyed now by UK GI producers, with all 86 UK GIs given new UK GI status automatically. The UK would no longer be required to recognise EU GI status. EU producers would be able to apply for UK GI status. We will be publishing guidance on the UK GI schemes in early 2019."

HMG expects the EU to continue to protect British products after Brexit but, should that not be the case, it advises producers to apply for GI protection as third country producers or the registration of their signs with the EU Intellectual Property Office as collective or certification marks,

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or geographical indications generally should call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.