Brexit and Registered Community Designs
The Brexit transition period agreed between the UK and EU is due to end on 31 December 2020. With offices in both the UK and Germany, Venner Shipley LLP will continue to represent clients before the EUIPO following the end of the transition period.
UK legislation has been agreed which will ensure that owners of registered Community designs will continue to have protection in the UK even in the absence of an agreement on trade between the UK and the EU. For more information about obtaining equivalent protection in the UK for Community design applications, or international (Hague) design applications designating the EU, that remain pending at the end of the transition period, please see our separate notification here.
An equivalent UK “cloned” right will be created by the UK IPO for every registered Community design registration, and for every registered EU designation of an international (Hague) design registration, in force at 31 December 2020. No action is required by you.
The new UK right will retain the filing or priority date of the registered Community design on which it is based, and will keep its existing registered Community design number. A prefix will be added depending on the type of registration (rights stemming from a registered Community design will have the prefix “UK9”; and rights stemming from EU designations of an international registration will have the prefix “UK8”).
Where the registered Community design is a granted designation of an international design registration, the new UK right will nonetheless be a UK national registration.
The UK right will retain the same renewal date as its corresponding registered Community design, and separate renewal fees will need to be paid to renew both the UK right and its corresponding registered Community design.
You do not need to take any action. We will automatically assume responsibility for the equivalent cloned UK rights created by the UKIPO on 1 January 2021 at no cost, and will forward a schedule of the new UK rights to you shortly afterwards. We will also send you reminders concerning the payment of renewal fees for the new UK rights when they fall due, unless you instruct us otherwise, although we always recommend that you keep your own record of renewal deadlines.
Please contact your usual attorney if you have any questions.
