UK confirms how protection for EU registered rights will be maintained in the UK in a 'no deal' Brexit

The UK government has published another piece of draft legislation that aims to ensure protection for EU registered rights will be maintained in the event of a 'no-deal' Brexit.

The latest draft statutory instrument deals with EU designations of International trade mark registrations and also registered designs – both Community Registered Designs and EU designations of International designs.

In essence, the approach in relation to these rights is very similar to that set out in the earlier published draft statutory instrument that deals with continued protection for EU trade marks:

• Rights that are already registered and protected in the EU will automatically and without charge give rise to an equivalent UK comparable right (one point to note is that registered designs need to be published, so if publication has been deferred, these rights will not automatically give rise to a UK right).
• Rights that are still pending and are not yet fully protected in the EU will not automatically be replicated in the UK, but their owners will get a nine month right of priority from Brexit day (29 March 2019 in the case of a 'no deal' Brexit) during which they can apply for an equivalent UK right and keep the same priority date.

This approach means that in practice the UK portion of EU designations of International rights will be removed from the International systems and will become standalone UK rights that will need to be renewed and dealt with separately.