Owners of EU trade marks and designs, which were registered when the Brexit transition period ended on 31 December 2020, were lucky to have been granted automatic, and free-of-charge, equivalent UK rights on 1 January 2021.
However, for those EU trade mark and design applications which were still pending on 31 December 2020, no such equivalent rights were granted. Instead, it’s down to the rights’ owners to take action in order to secure, and preserve, the protection of rights in the UK. Helpfully, owners have until 30 September 2021 for filing UK applications which, pursuant to the post Brexit provisions, may claim the original filing and priority dates of the original EU applications. There are no additional official fees for making use of this useful mechanism and nor are we charging extra.
Please check if you, or your clients, had any pending EU rights (which includes not yet granted EU designations of Madrid and Hague International applications) on 30 December 2020 and find out urgently if UK protection is needed. If yes, then it makes absolute sense to make the most of the provision, in order to preserve all possible rights.
For more information please contact Carl Steele.
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