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David Stone recently shared his wisdom on the current and anticipated EU designs law changes with IPSoc members. IPSoc is the society for junior IP lawyers in the UK, you can find out more about joining IPSoc here . The current legal framework for designs in the EU dates back to 1998 (the Design Directive ) and 2001 (the Community Design Regulation ) . When the Regulation was introduced, the law was completely new. In practice, it was a combination of the law relating to designs of the 14 Member States (at that time) who had designs law within their national systems. For readers wondering what led to the design reforms and what happened next, David's handy summary of the history of the EU designs reforms is below. The reviews of designs law Th e EU has been evaluating the effectiveness of designs law. The purpose of this review is to check whether EU designs law :  has achieved its objectives including efficiency, relevance and effectiveness. is still considered  fit for p...

The UK government guidance on a no deal scenario also considers the situation for trade marks and designs . To save readers' paws the trouble of clicking through, the abbreviated text for each section is below together with some gratuitous use of bold and initial thoughts on what this could mean. As they are unitary rights, the EU trade mark and registered Community designs are the most harmonised areas of IP law but in some respects, they offer the simplest solutions. EU trade mark and registered Community designs existing registered EU trade marks or registered Community designs held will continue to be valid in the remaining EU member states protection of existing registered EU trade marks or registered Community designs in the UK will be through a new, equivalent UK right which will be granted with minimal administrative burden right holders will be notified that a new UK right has been granted. Any business, organisation or individual that may not want to receive a new compara...

The Institute for Government is not optimistic about a deal We know what the EU27 and UK would like to see in terms of IP and Brexit but as the prospect of a deal being reached before 29 March 2019 looks increasingly unlikely, it's time to ask: what will happen if there is no deal? Under a deal, EU designs and trade marks would be automatically converted to UK rights, apparently at no cost. This does not look to be available if there is no deal.  Instead, it is likely that the EU trade mark and Community registered and unregistered designs would cease to apply in the UK and until legislation is put in place which offers protection on similar terms, there will be no equivalent protection in the UK. The UK government is rolling out various technical notices on a UK no deal scenario throughout September. The first collection of these notices is available  here . While there is some consideration of the impact of importing and exporting as well as product labelling, the current ...