Legal

Understanding the legal implications of Brexit

What Brexit means for intellectual property, data handling and more

The Intellectual Property Office has produced guidance setting out arrangements from January 1, 2021. This covers EU trade marks, registered community designs, unregistered designs, international trade mark registrations, rights of representation, patents, supplementary protection certificates, exhaustion of rights and copyright. The rules governing address for service for intellectual property rights has changed.

There is specific guidance for food and drink producers with ‘geographical indication’ (GI) protection. and information on applications, changes and cancellations for consultation under the UK geographical indications (GI) schemes and how to appeal against decisions.

There is guidance on how to use the UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed) marking. The UKCA marking is a new UK product marking that will be used for goods being placed on the market in Great Britain. It covers most goods which previously required the CE marking. The UKCA marking can be used from 1 January 2021. However, businesses will still be able to use the CE marking until January 2022 in most cases.

This is the guidance to follow if your business receives personal data from partners or suppliers in EU or EEA countries. Personal data is any information that can be used to identify someone.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has issued guidance on data protection.

There is also guidance on sui generis database rights – changes to protection in the EU for databases produced in the UK.

Here’s a round-up of other legal and technical issues:

Cumbria Chamber of Commerce has recorded a podcast and webinar with Alex Craig, head of commercial at law firm Muckle, exploring the impacts of Brexit on data flow and intellectual property rights.