The decision for Britain to leave the EU was decided on Thursday 23 June 2016, and whilst most of the politician’s arguments concerned issues of the free movement of people and goods and the implications that Brexit would have on our own legal system, the world of intellectual property law appeared somewhat absent from the political debates.
Intellectual property rights are an amalgamation of rights afforded to a company or an individual. They vary by the particular right, with the most commonly heard of being trademarks and copyrights.
At present, ‘design right’ which is an intellectual property right can afford protection to a ‘design’ in the UK and the EU. There are four different types of design right, these are;
- Unregistered design right in the UK;
- Registered design right in the UK;
- Unregistered community design; and
- Registered community design.
Each of the above rights are separate and carry with them differentiating features, including the scope of protection and the duration of said protection.
One market sector which has already expressed its concerns regarding the implications of Brexit is the fashion industry. The fashion industry is a market sector which is heavily reliant upon the unregistered community design right protection, however this will no longer have any effect in the UK after the UK leaves the EU. The fashion industry must remain adaptive and with new releases each season, it would add unnecessary complications to companies in the sector if they were under an obligation to register each new design, however this could be the predicament that these companies will soon face.
As previously stated, the fashion industry has been reliant on the unregistered community design. A reason for this is that the unregistered community design right protection protects surface decoration, whereas the UK registered design right does not. It will still be possible to obtain an unregistered community design right after the UK leaves the EU which will still be valid throughout the remaining EU countries. To achieve this companies will have to first release their product in the EU prior to its launch in the UK.
Summerfield Browne Solicitors have offices in London, Birmingham, Oxford, Cambridge and Market Harborough, Leicester.
