France: Analysing Brexit’s impact on European trade marks and designs

Managing IP is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Gardens, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

France: Analysing Brexit’s impact on European trade marks and designs

c963031c-805d-4f1a-9099-1548249f5b9fbrexit-min-2-final.jpg

In the latest international briefing for France, Aurélia Marie assesses the effect of Brexit on EU trade marks and designs

There are two possible scenarios following the vote on June 23 2016 in favour of Brexit: the agreement accepted by the European Commission on November 25, but not voted for by the UK Parliament is eventually accepted by the UK, or no agreement is found and the UK has to leave the European Union without any agreed rules on March 29 (hard Brexit).

In the first scenario, the agreement provides a transitional period from March 30 2019 to December 31 2020 and provides for the continuation of rights attached to European trademarks and designs in the UK. In addition, during this transitional period, the UK will remain subject to all European regulations.

EU trademarks will give rights for their remaining duration to national comparable trademarks in the UK with no new examination. The same rules will apply for registered designs and non-registered designs.

For pending filings, an extended priority period of nine months to file nationally in the UK after the end of the transitional period for both trademarks and designs is provided

An EU administrative or court action pending on December 31 2020 (EUIPO or ECJ) will have effect in the UK even if the decision is to occur after the transitional period, except if the grounds of the decision are not applicable in the UK.

If no agreement is established, on March 29, the UK will become a "third country" to the EU. There is no current UK regulation to cover what will happen to EU trademarks and designs, only drafts. However, these drafts seem to provide similar provisions to those in the agreement.

As the amount of fees for renewal is unknown, it may be beneficial for registrants to renew all EU trademarks or designs that can be renewed before March 29.

marie.jpg

Aurélia Marie

Cabinet Beau de Loménie

158, rue de l’Université

F - 75340 Paris Cedex 07 France

Tel: +33 1 44 18 89 00

Fax: +33 1 44 18 04 23

contact@bdl-ip.com

www.bdl-ip.com

more from across site and SHARED ros bottom lb

More from across our site

Value-added services give in-house counsel the satisfaction that they are getting more value for money, while law firms get the opportunity to win more work
A team at Boies Schiller Flexner is advising shoe company Kizik and parent company HandsFree Labs in the dispute
Nokia’s latest enforcement actions against Geely and Transsion joining Via LA’s AAC pool were also among the top talking points
Benjamin Kelly, the firm’s fifth IP partner hire in a little over one year, has experience in patent and trade secret disputes involving complex technologies
Half-year Talent Tracker data shows Pierson Ferdinand was among the most prolific hirers in the US, while in Europe, there has been a notable UPC swing
Exclusive data reveals in-house counsel want external legal advisers to build better client relationships and add value beyond routine work
Brett Sandford acted for Perplexity AI, which fended off the threat of a preliminary injunction to launch an AI-powered web browser
Stephen Yang joins us for our ‘Five minutes with’ series to explain why his role requires him to wear many hats
The complaint follows a declaratory ruling issued by the England and Wales High Court last month that said Samsung is entitled to an interim licence
Tobias Hahn explains how the firm's multi-jurisdictional setup enabled it to secure an injunction on behalf of Fujifilm relating to defendant Kodak’s non-UPC activity
Gift this article