Just over a week ago, the population of the UK voted in a referendum to leave the European Union. This was something of a shock, particularly for those of us in the legal profession who get to appreciate the effects that EU harmonisation of law can bring for our clients.
The result is starting to sink in, so I thought I would let you have my thoughts on what effect I think this is going to have on intellectual property rights in the UK.
The first thing to point out is that nothing is going to change for at least two years, and probably quite a bit longer. The UK Government is required to give two years’ notice of its wish to exit the EU, and as we are currently without an effective government, it is very unlikely that the notice is going to be served until late 2016, meaning that the exit will not take effect until late 2018 or, more likely, early 2019. In the short term, therefore, not much is going to change. It is also worth remembering that the UK is leaving the European Union, not ripping up every international convention that it has ever signed, so we will continue to be a member of the Berne Convention, the Madrid Convention, TRIPS, the EPO system etc.
In the meantime, the UK (or possibly what is left of it) will negotiate a new deal with the EU which will determine to what extent the UK remains as part of the European “club” despite its withdrawal from full EU membership. We don’t yet know what that deal will look like.
There is bound to be a question mark, however, over any new legislation that comes out of Brussels in the intervening period, particularly where directives would need to be transposed into UK law. Will the UK Government decide not to implement measures with which it disagrees, on the basis that its obligation to do so will be coming to an end? I have to say, I think this is unlikely and I suspect that the UK Government will simply adopt the policy of full compliance until there is a formal exit.
So, before the UK exit, and probably for quite a while afterwards, the UK is very likely to simply continue to modify its IP law to comply with EU directives and will continue to comply with direct effect EU regulations as well.
What does this therefore mean for individual IP rights?
Read more: http://www.ilnipinsider.com/2016/07/bripxit-ip-impacts-of-uks-referendum-results/
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