The EU Commission Paper on IP and Brexit considers the key principles which it believes need to be in place at the date of the Withdrawal Agreement in relation to intellectual property rights having unitary character within the European Union:

  • The holder of intellectual property rights granted before the withdrawal date should, after that date, be recognised as the holder of an enforceable intellectual property right in relation to the United Kingdom territory;
  • That the United Kingdom puts in place necessary domestic legislation to ensure that terms protected under European Union law survive;
  • Implementation of the principles should not cause financial cost for the holders of the intellectual property and should keep administrative burden to a strict minimum;
  • Applications for intellectual property submitted before the withdrawal date but where the process is still on-going should keep the benefit of any priority date in respect of such pending application when applying after the withdrawal date for an equivalent intellectual property right in the UK;
  • Holders of intellectual property should still be entitled to obtain in the UK supplementary protection certificates or an extension of duration for such certificate where the application was submitted prior to the withdrawal date but the process is still ongoing;
  • Protected databases prior to the withdrawal date should continue to enjoy such protection after that date in the EU27 member states and in the UK;
  • Rights conferred by intellectual property rights which were exhausted in the European Union territory before the withdrawal date should remain exhausted in the EU27 territory and in the UK territory; and
  • The Withdrawal Agreement should also provide for adequate protection in relation to the transfer of data between registries of intellectual property rights in the UK and EU27.

Please click here to read the paper in full.

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