Brexit - Intellectual Property and Data Protection

Imminent Brexit-related issues to consider

Trademarks and Community Designs: the UK government will almost certainly put in place measures to ensure that any registered trademarks, registered Community designs and unregistered Community designs will continue to be protected in a No Deal Brexit.

Copyright: copyright laws in the UK will remain largely unchanged, in part owing to the UK being a party to the main relevant international treaties. However, the reciprocal element of cross-border mechanisms will cease to apply to the UK (unless the EU passes new legislation) and consequently UK businesses should consider whether new agreements (e.g. for broadcasting) need to be negotiated.

Patents: the UK has ratified the agreement on a Unified Patent Court (“UPC”), which will have jurisdiction over European patent disputes. If the UPC does not come into force before Brexit, there will be no changes to UK law at that time. However, if the UPC has been launched, the UK will need to consider whether it is possible to remain within the UPC system.

Adequacy: the Commission has ruled out adopting an “Adequacy Decision” for the UK before Brexit. As a result, where EU businesses transfer personal data from the EU to UK recipients, they must ensure they have put “appropriate safeguards” (e.g. standard data protection clauses, binding corporate rules, approved codes of conduct and/or approved certification mechanisms) in place before the transfers may take place. For its part, the UK will continue to recognize EU data protection standards as adequate after Brexit; therefore, personal data transfers from the UK to the EU will be able to continue as now.

Geo-Blocking: on leaving the EU with a “No Deal”-Brexit, the Geo-Blocking Regulation will cease to have effect under UK law and the prohibition of UK companies discriminating between customers located in the EU and the UK will cease to apply. However, the Geo-Blocking Regulation will continue to operate in the EU and consequently, UK businesses offering goods or services to customers in the EU will have to continue to comply with the Geo-Blocking Regulation in their treatment of customers from different EU member states after Brexit.