Written by Evan Kent and Alexa Lewis
Last week, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. The process, however, will take at least two years to be completed. Your European Union registered trademarks, which currently cover the United Kingdom, will continue to be enforceable in the United Kingdom for some time. Eventually, this will no longer be the case, but we expect that a transitional procedure will be established allowing for the maintenance of rights in the United Kingdom once it has officially departed the European Union. Because there is no precedent for such an event, there is no way to predict whether this will take the form of an automatic extension of existing European Union rights to the United Kingdom, require re-registration in the United Kingdom, or another conversion procedure altogether.
Going forward, if you anticipate that your trademarks will be used in the European Union and in the United Kingdom, you should consider filing trademark applications in both jurisdictions in order to safeguard your trademark rights.
Rest assured, MSK will continue to monitor this situation for any new developments and will provide you with any new information that becomes available. MSK is committed to maintaining our clients’ trademark rights in the European Union and the United Kingdom.
