Brexit White Paper: IP implications
July 17, 2018
After over two years of debate, discussion and disagreement, the British Government recently revealed its White Paper proposal for the UK’s future relationship with the European Union.
In a new post for Lexology, Herbert Smith Freehills LLP looks at the detail of the white paper and the implications it will have on intellectual property and cyber security.
In IP terms, although the white paper reaffirms Britain’s intention to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, it also declares the intent to stay within the Unified Patent Court, as well as the Unitary Patent system, although this would involve accepting the ECJ’s authority in certain cases related to patents.
The white paper also acknowledges the importance of future cooperation between the UK and the remaining EU Member States regarding IP, in order to reassure rights holders operating both in and between the UK and EU of their security.
Similarly, the paper stipulates that the two bodies will need to continue their cooperation on matters of cyber security, proposing “close collaboration” between the United Kingdom and the Network and Information Security Group, the Computer Security Incident Response Team Network, and the EU Agency for Network and Information Security; however, no actual detail is provided on how this will be possible once the UK leaves the European Union.
The UK will also establish its own GIs – Geographical Indications – scheme, which Herbert Smith Freehills says will “provide continuous protection for UK GIs in the UK and protection for new GIs applied for by UK and non-UK applicants.” The new scheme established in the UK will be consistent with the existing one, as the UK desires “equivalence arrangements” on a range of issues.
It must be noted that the white paper produced by the British Government is by no means set in stone, and with opposition to its proposals coming from within the government itself, let alone from the EU’s negotiating team, there is a long way to go before any of the intentions made this month become concrete.
Categories : Around the Industry
Tags : Brexit Cybersecurity European Union Intellectual property IP United Kingdom
