Author: Airina Guzauskiene, Trademark and Design Agent
Brexit will have a significant impact on trademark protection in the European Union and the United Kingdom:
- Registered EU trademarks from 1 January 2021 will no longer protect trademarks in the UK jurisdiction as the transition period is due to end on 31 December 2020.
- EU trademarks will protect trademarks in EU member states only.
- On 1 January 2021, UK IPO will automatically create a cloned UK trademark as separate registrations on the UK register for every registered EU trademark.
- EU trademark applications that are pending until 31 December 2020 will not have automatic UK rights. If you will have an EU trademark application that is still pending on 1 January 2021, you will be able to claim priority and apply to register a separate UK trademark in the 9 months.
If you have interests regarding trademarks in the UK jurisdiction, we may be able to help and file a National UK application.
We look forward to hearing from you if we can assist with the above or any other matters.